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CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSAKY 



OF THE 



BATTLE OF BUNKEE HILL. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/celebrationofcenOObost 




CITY HALL. 
[Drawn by A. R. W'AUD. Engraved by A. V. S. ANTHONY.] 



CELEBRATION 



CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING A SURVEY OF THE 

LITERATURE OF THE BATTLE, ITS 

ANTECEDENTS AND RESULTS. 





§ s t it : 

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 

MDCCCLXXV. 

IN 



\\^,VAy. \fi*J > 



CITY OF BOSTON. 



In Board of Aldermen, June 21. 1875. 
Ordered, That the Clerk of Committees be requested to prepare and print an 
account of the celebration in this city, commemorative of the centennial anniver- 
sary of the battle of Bunker Hill; and that one thousand copies be printed for 
the use of the City Government, to be distributed under the direction of the 
Committee on Printing, the expense to be charged to the appropriation for 
Incidentals. 

In Common Council, July 1, 1875. 
Concurred. 
Approved July 3d, 1875. 



% 



Press of 

ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL, 
39 Arch Street, Boston. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preliminary Arrangements . . • " 

Mayor's Inaugural Address • 12 

Report of Special Committee 12 

Order of City Council 13 

City's Programme 1^ 

City's Invitations 14 

Action of the Legislature 15 

Circular of Chief Marshal . . . . ■ • • • .16-21 

Notice of the Chief of Police . 2i 

Reception in Music Hall 25 

The Mayor's Welcome 26-34 

Remarks of Gov. Gaston 85 

Remarks of Col. A. O Andrews 36-41 

Remarks of Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee 41 

Remarks of Gen. J. C. Kilpatrick 43 

Remarks of Gen. W. T. Sherman . 45 

Remarks of Gen. A. E. Burnside 46 

Remarks of Vice-President Wilson -46 

The Procession 51 

The Decorations .......••• 51 

The Review 52 

The Chief Marshal and Staff 52 

Massachusetts Volunteer Militia 53 

First Division of Procession 55 

Second Division of Procession ....... 57 

Third Division of Procession ........ 61 

Fourth Division of Procession ....... 63 

Fifth Division of Procession 64 

Sixth Division of Procession 65 

Seventh Division of Procession 67 

Eighth Division of Procession 68 

Ninth Division of Procession 69 



VI 11 



CONTENTS 



Services on Bunker Hill .... 
Prayer by Rev. Rufua Ellis 
Hymn — Prayer before Battle 

Address of Hon. Charles Devens, Jr. 
Hymn, written by Charles James Sprague 
Address by Hon. G. Washington Warren 
Remarks of General Sherman 
Remarks of Governor Hartranft 
Song, written by Charles James Sprague 
Remarks of Governor Bedle . 
Remarks of Governor Dingley 
Remarks of Vice-President Wilson 
Despatch from San Francisco 
Despatch from New Orleans . 
Ode, written by Geo. Sennott . 
Hymn, written by G. Washington Warrei 
Letter from Governor Ingersoll 
Letter from Mayor of New Orleans 
Letter from Mayor of Memphis 
Letter from Mayor of Omaha 
Despatch from Ladies of Allentown, Pa. 
Despatch from National Board of Trade . 
Appendix : — 

Literature of Bunker Hill, with its antecedents and results 



PAGE 

75 
76 
77 
78 
126 
127 
130 
132 
134 
134 
137 
138 
HO 
140 
141 
142 
143 
144 
145 
146 
147 
147 

151 



PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 



PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 



In his inaugural address to the City Council of Boston, on the 
5th of January, 1875, the Mayor — Hon. Samuel C. Cobb — 
referred to the approaching centennial anniversary in the 
following words : — 

" The centennial epoch of our national history is close 
at hand. Preparations are now being made to celebrate 
the hundredth anniversary of the declaration of inde- 
pendence, on a grand scale, in the city from which that 
momentous document was promulgated. The startling 
events in Boston and its vicinity, in 1775, aroused 
the sympathetic patriotism of the sister colonies, and 
justified and made possible that solemn act of the 
Continental Congress of 1776. Those events will be 
commemorated. Our neighbors at Lexington and Con- 
cord are preparing for the local celebration of the acts 
of heroism which have rendered those names famous. 
The scene of the first great revolutionary combat is now 
within our municipal limits. The patriotic Association 
which has charge of the grounds will, doubtless, initiate 
measures for the due observance of the 17th of June 
next, the hundredth anniversary of the battle of Bunker 
Hill. It will be for you to consider to what extent this 
government can properly co-operate with them." 



12 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

This portion of the Mayor's address was referred to a joints 
special committee of the City Council, consisting of Aldermen 
Thomas B. Harris and Solomon B. Stebbins, Councilmen 
Edwin Sibley, Eugene H. Sampson and Isaac P. Clarke. 
The committee reported on the 12th of April, as follows : — 

The joint special committee to which was referred so much of the 
Mayor's inaugural address as relates to the celebration of the 17th of 
June next, having carefully considered the subject, beg leave to 
submit the following report : — 

The one hundredth anniversary of the first great battle of the Amer- 
ican Revolution is an event which clearly calls for recognition and 
commemorative action on the part of the municipal authorities of 
Boston ; and the only question would seem to be the extent and 
character of the action which it would be proper, and, under the 
circumstances, desirable, for the city government to take. 

Your committee have conferred with the representatives of the 
State and of the Bunker Hill Monument Association ; but no definite 
action can be taken until the representatives of the city are duly au- 
thorized to give their assent to such arrangements as may be agreed 
upon for the celebration. 

It is proposed, on the part of the State, to invite as its guests the 
principal executive officers of the United States and governors of the 
several States ; and to order out, for review and for escort duty, the 
entire militia organization of this State. "With a view to secure 
harmony of action, and prevent confusion in carrying out the details, 
it is suggested that all the other matters connected with the cele- 
bration — except the delivery of the oration, for which arrangements 
have already been made by the Monument Association — should be 
under the control and management of the city. On that basis an 
approximate estimate has been prepared of the expense which the city 
would be called upon to bear, amounting in the total to thirty thousand 
dollars, and the committee would respectfully recommend the passage 
of an order appropriating that amount. ...... 

Respectfully submitted, 

For the Committee, 

THOMAS B. HARRIS, 

Chairman. 



BATTLE OF BUKKER HILL. 13 

The following order was passed by the City Council, and 
approved by the Mayor, on the 7th of May : — 

Ordered, That His Honor the Mayor, the Chairman of the Board 
of Aldermen, the President of the Common Council, with Aldermen 
Harris, Stebhins, Quincy and Power, and Councilmen Sibley, Samp- 
son, Clarke, Peabody, Flynn, Guild and Devereux, be authorized to 
make suitable arrangements, on the part of the City of Boston, for the 
Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker 
Hill ; and that said committee be authorized to expend for that 
purpose the income of the Foss fund, and of the Babcock fund, and, 
in addition thereto, a sum not exceeding thirty thousand dollars,* to 

be charged to the appropriation for Incidentals. 

- 

The Mayor, having been empowered by the committee to 
select a suitable person to act as Chief Marshal of the proces- 
sion which it was proposed to organize on the day of the 
celebration, appointed General Francis A. Osborn, with full 
authority to make such arrangements, in matters pertaining 
to the duties of the office, as he might deem necessary. 

The part to be taken by the city in the observance of the 
anniversary was further defined as follows : It was decided 
to have an official reception in Music Hall on the evening of 
the 16th of June ; to decorate all the public buildings, and 
designate, by suitable inscriptions, the places of historical 
interest in the city ; to have the bells of the churches rung, 
and national salutes fired at sunrise, noon and sunset, on the 
17th; to provide a tent and such other accommodations as 
may be necessary for the exercises at Bunker Hill ; to make 
a display of fireworks on Boston Common and on Sullivan 
square, in Charlestown; to illuminate the dome of the City 
Hall, in School street, and the front and dome of the old City 
Hall, in Charlestown ; to exhibit calcium lights from the top of 

* On the 5th of June this sum was increased to $35,000. The amount actually 
expended was $33,444.46. 



14 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

the Bunker Hill Monument, and from other prominent points 
in the city proper, and in East Boston, South Boston and 
Roxbury ; and to have bonfires in Dorchester, West Roxbury 
and Brighton. 

By request of the committee, the Mayor extended a cordial 
invitation to the following-named officials to accept the hospi- 
talities of the city : — 

The Mayor of Mobile, Ala. ; Little Rock, Ark. ; San 
Francisco, Cal. ; New Haven, Conn. ; Wilmington, Del. ; 
Jacksonville, Fla. ; Savannah, Ga. ; Chicago, 111. ; Indian- 
apolis, Ind. ; Davenport, Iowa ; Leavenworth, Kansas ; Louis- 
ville, Ky. ; New Orleans, La. ; Portland, Me. ; Baltimore, 
Md. ; Detroit, Mich. ; St. Paul, Minn. ; Yicksburg, Miss. ; 
St. Louis, Mo. ; Omaha, Neb. ; Virginia, Nevada ; Manchester, 
N. H. ; Newark, N. J. ; New York, N. Y. ; Wilmington, 
N. C. ; Cincinnati, Ohio ; Portland, Oregon ; Philadelphia, 
Pa..; Providence, R. I. ; Charleston, S. C. ; Memphis, Tenn. ; 
Galveston, Texas ; Burlington, Yt. ; Richmond, Va. ; Wheel- 
ing, W. Va. ; Milwaukee, Wis. ; General Joseph R. Hawley, 
President U. S. Centennial Commission ; Alfred T. Goshorn, 
Esquire, Director General U. S. Centennial Commission; 
Honorable John Welch, President of the Board of Finance, 
U. S. Centennial Commission ; Frederick Fraley, Esquire, 
Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Finance, U. S. Cen- 
tennial Commission ; Honorable William Bigler, Financial 
Agent U. S. Centennial Commission ; Honorable Daniel J. 
Morrell, Chairman Executive Committee U. S. Centennial 
Commission. 

The following persons were invited to meet the Mayor at the 
City Hall, at 9 o'clock on the morning of the 17th, for the 
purpose of uniting with the City Government in the exer- 
cises of the day : — 

The Mayors of cities in Massachusetts ; the past Mayors of 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



15 



Boston, Roxbury and Charlestown ; Hon. E. R. Hoar, Mr. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Mr. George Heywood, committee 
of the town of Concord ; Mr. Charles Hudson, Mr. M. H. 
Merriam, and Mr. W. H. Munroe, committee of the town of Lex- 
ington ; Prof. Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard College ; 
Hon. Charles Francis Adams, Mr. Henry W. Longfellow, Mr. 
James Russell Lowell, Dr. O. W. Holmes, Mr. William Gray, 
Mr. Wendell Phillips, Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, and others. 

Under an order of the House of Representatives, passed the 
13th of March, a joint special committee of the Massachusetts 
Legislature was appointed, "with full power to make such 
arrangements as might be deemed proper and expedient for the 
reception, on the part of the State, of the President and 
Vice-President of the United States, and other distinguished 
strangers who might visit the State upon the occasion of the 
celebration of the 17th of June." 

The committee subsequently invited the following persons to 
become the guests of the State : The President and Vice- 
President of the United States ; the President pro tempore of 
the United States Senate ; the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States ; the members of the President's 
Cabinet ; the Judges of the Supreme Judicial Court of the 
United States ; General William T. Sherman ; Lieutenant Gen- 
eral Philip H. Sheridan; Major General Winfield S. Hancock; 
Admiral David D. Porter; Vice- Admiral Stephen C. Rowan; 
the Governors of all the States ; the Chiefs of the Diplomatic 
Corps ; the Senators and Representatives in Congress from 
Maine ; Andrew Johnson, Ex-President of the United States ; 
and John A. Dix, of New York. 

On the 14th of June His Excellency, the Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief, tendered the First Division of Massachu- 
setts Volunteer Militia to the City of Boston, for the purpose 
of escort duty at the Centennial Anniversary, and stated, at the 



16 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

same time, that the troops would pass in review at the State 
House, while en route to the head of the civic procession. 

In response to a request from the Mayor, Major General W. 
S. Hancock, commanding the Military Division of the Atlantic, 
directed Major George P. Andrews, of the Fifth U. S. Artillery, 
to detail two companies from the troops in Boston Harbor, 
under the command of Brevet Major General Richard Arnold, 
to report for duty, in connection with the procession. 

In a circular* issued just previous to the 17th, the Chief 
Marshal made the following announcement in regard to the 
formation and management of the procession, and the route 
over which it would pass : — 

The First Division Massachusetts Volunteer Militia has been 
ordered by the Major General commanding to form upon the Parade 
Ground of the Common at 8.40, A. M. Before reporting for duty as 
escort of the procession, the division is to march in review before 
the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, who is to take post for the 
purpose in front of the State House. The column of troops is to 
move from the Parade Ground through Bojdston-street mall, Tre- 
mont, Beacon, and Dartmouth streets. It is to halt in Dartmouth 
street, the right resting at Columbus avenue, and is to close in mass, 
thus assuming position to take up the procession. 

The procession, except the First Division, will form at 10 o'clock 
in the several positions named below. 

The First Division will form at 9 o'clock in Charles street, the right 
resting at Boylston street, the left prolonged toward Beacon street, 
and up Beacon-street mall. This division, in conformity with the 
wish of its constituent bodies and of the State authorities, will join 
in the march in review, and will follow the division of Massachusetts 
Militia. When that division shall close in mass and halt, the First 
Division will close upon it and execute the same movement. 

* The circular gave the organization of the several divisions ; but that portion is 
omitted here, as it is given more in detail in the account of the procession. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 17 

The official personages composing the Second Division will witness 
the review at the State House. The several escorts to Governors 
of States will be posted as follows : The First Troop of City 
Cavalry, of Philadelphia, in Ashburton place, right resting at 
Bowdoin street. The First Company Governor's Foot Guards, 
of Hartford, escort of the Governor of Connecticut, the Portland 
Cadets, escort of the Governor of Maine, and the Governor Straw 
Rifles, escort of the Governor of New Hampshire, in the Park- 
street mall, right resting at Beacon street. The National Lancers, 
escort of the State Government, in Derne street, right resting at Bow- 
doin street. Immediately after the review, the chief of this division 
will exert himself to form it as speedily as possible. The City Gov- 
ernment and their guests will leave the State House by the door on 
Mount Vernon street, will take their carriages and drive rapidly to 
Charles street, where they will form, the right resting at Beacon 
street, the left prolonged toward Cambridge street. The State Gov- 
ernment and their guests will leave the State House by the Beacon- 
street side, will take their carriages, and, preceded bj r the Lancers, 
will drive down Beacon street, and form with the right resting at 
Charles street, in position to follow the City Government. The 
escorts will be moved up in season to take up their respective 
Governors in their proper places. 

The Third Division will form on Beacon street, the right resting at 
Dartmouth street, the left prolonged toward Parker street. 

The Fourth Division will form on Marlboro' street, the right rest- 
ing at Dartmouth street, the left prolonged toward Arlington street. 

The Fifth Division will form on Marlboro' street, the right resting 
at Dartmouth street, the left prolonged toward Parker street. 

The Sixth Division will form on Commonwealth avenue, north side, 
the right resting at Dartmouth street, the left prolonged toward 
Arlington street. 

The Seventh Division will form in two subdivisions, the first on 
Commonwealth avenrue, south side, and the second on Newbury 
street, the right of each subdivision resting at Dartmouth street, the 
left prolonged toward Arlington street. The Chief of this division 
will detail an Aid to see that the second subdivision moves promptly 
to unite with the first. 
3 



18 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

The Eighth Division will form on Boylston street, the right resting 
at Dartmouth street, the left prolonged toward Arlington street. 

The Ninth Division will form on Chandler and Appleton streets, 
Warren avenue, Brookline, Pembroke, Newton, Rutland and Concord 
streets, or as man}' of them as may be needed, in the order named, — 
the right of the subdivisions in Brookline and Pembroke streets, rest- 
ing at Warren avenue ; the right of those in the other streets named, 
resting at Columbus avenue. All wagons will enter the designated 
streets at the rear, and will be formed in single column from front to 
rear, in the order of their reporting, excepting those bearing very 
unwieldy loads, and liable for that reason to delay the march, which 
will be posted at the rear of the division. A line will first be formed 
in Chandler street, close by the northern curbstone, and a second line 
close by the southern curbstone ; and the same order will be followed 
in the other streets. The line first formed will move first, and the 
second will follow close in its rear. Teams of more than a single 
pair of horses will be provided with men to walk beside the leaders, 
as security against accident and delay. Wagons heavily loaded must 
be furnished with brakes. 

The head-quarters of the Chief Marshal will be at the corner of 
Beacon and Arlington streets. The General Staff will report to him 
there at 9 o'clock, A.M. 

Chiefs of Divisions will establish their head-quarters at the points 
indicated above for the right of their respective divisions, and will 
remain, or be represented there, until their divisions shall move. 
The}'' will detail bearers for the respective division banners, who 
will be stationed, during the formation, at the right of the division, 
and who will march in advance of the division, thirty paces in rear of 
the one preceding. They will also detail mounted orderlies, to carry 
their respective head-quarter flags. Each Chief of Division, when he 
shall see the division next preceding his own in motion, will close his 
division in mass, and be prepared to march promptly, at an interval 
of thirty paces in its rear ; he will station an Aid at the rear of his 
division, to notify the Chief of the succeeding one of the moment to 
move. Each Chief of Division will labor during the march to main- 
tain his division at the prescribed interval ; and, if he shall find that 



BATTLE OF BUNEEB HILL. 19 

it is losing distance, or becoming unduly extended, he will at once 
communicate the fact to the Chief Marshal. 

Divisions, in taking up the line of march, will take distance by the 
head of column. 

Aids detailed by the Chief Marshal will attend at the several railroad 
stations for the purpose of giving all necessary information to organi- 
zations arriving. They will reach the stations at 9, A.M., and remain 
until 11, A.M. Organizations are requested to follow the route from 
the railroad station which may be indicated by such Aids. 

As each organization arrives on the ground prescribed for its 
division, its Chief will report at once to the Chief of Division the total 
number of its members present, of its band, and of its carriages, and 
it will be assigned a place in column. 

All but military bodies will form and march in single ranks of six 
files each. Carriages will form two abreast, and maintain that order 
during the march. 

The formation of the procession cannot be completed until after the 
conclusion of the military review. After the troops, and the official 
personages who will be present at the review, shall have taken their 
respective positions, the head of the column will take up the line of 
march, at an "hour not earlier than Hi o'clock, from the corner of 
Dartmouth street and Columbus avenue, and will move through the 
following-named streets : — 



Columbus avenue, West Chester park,' Chester square, southwest 
side, Washington and Union Park streets, Union park, southwest 
side, Tremont, Boylston, Washington, Milk, India, Commercial and 
South Market streets, Merchants' row, State, Devonshire, Washing- 
ton and Charlestown streets, Charles-river bridge, Charles-river 
avenue, City square, Chelsea, Chestnut, southeast and northeast sides 
of Monument square, Concord, Bunker Hill and Main streets, Monu- 
ment avenue, southwest side of Monument square and Winthrop 
street to Winthrop square, where the procession will be dismissed. 

While crossing all bridges, bands and drums will cease playing and 
marching bodies will break step. Chiefs of Division will impress 
upon their commands the importance of this order, and will labor to 



20 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

enforce it, leaving an Aid at the entrance of each bridge for the pur- 
pose. 

The Chief Marshal has secured a line of telegraph along the whole 
route, and has established stations at the following places : — 

No. 1. Corner Beacon and Arlington streets, head-quarters Chief 
Marshal. 

No. 2. Corner Dartmouth street and Columbus avenue. 

No. 3. Corner Chester square and Washington street. 

No. 4. 5th Police Station, East Dedham street. 

No. 5. 282 Tremont street, corner Common street. 

No. 6. No. 411 Washington street, at Haley, Morse & Co.'s store. 

No. 7. Milk street, near Broad street. 

No. 8. Old State House. 

No. 9. Hayinarket square, in or near Boston and Maine Railroad 
dc>pot. 

No. 10. ChVy square, Charlestown. 

No. 11. Main, corner Thorndike street. 

No. 12. Winthrop square, opposite Park street. 

Chiefs of Division, on approaching each station, will send forward 
an Aid, with the despatch for the Chief Marshal, giving full informa- 
tion of the condition of their commands, and any other matters 
deemed by them important. They will instruct their Aids to receive 
any orders which may be waiting delivery. 

The operators at these stations will from time to time exhibit 
placards, for the information of the spectators, announcing the posi- 
tion of the head of the column. 

Airy Chief of Division not ready to move promptly in his order will 
at once notify the Chief of the one next succeeding, to march in his 
place and stead, and will take position for the march in rear of the 
last marching division, retaining at the head of his own its proper 
banner. Should he, however, be subject to detention by the unreadi- 
ness of a small portion of his command, he inay, at his discretion, 
detach such portion, and send it, under charge of an Aid, to report 
to the Chief of the last marching division. 

Any organization reaching the ground after the departure of its 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HELL. 21 

division will report to the Chief of the next succeeding one, not 
already in motion. 

Chiefs of Division are requested to transmit to these head-quarters, 
on the day following the celebration, consolidated reports of their 
commands. 

By order of Gen. FEANCIS A. OSBORN, 

Chief Marshal. 
COENELIUS G. ATTWOOD, Adjutant General. 

In connection with the Marshal's notice, the Chief of Police 
issued the following : — 

By direction of the Board of Aldermen, the streets designated 
by the Chief Marshal as the route for the procession on the 17th of 
June, and such other streets as the public safety and convenience 
may require, will be closed against the passage of vehicles at 9 
o'clock, A. M. 

The streets adjacent to the Common, and those on the Back Bay 
Territory on which the procession is to be formed, will be closed 
against the passage of vehicles at 8 o'clock, A. M. 

Monument square and (west) Monument avenue will be closed 
against the passage of vehicles at 8 o'clock, A. M., and' against the 
passage of all persons not authorized to pass there at 8 o'clock, 
A. M.,'on that day. 

All unnecessary obstructions on the streets or sidewalks must be 
removed, and it is highly desirable that all persons should aid the 
police in securing an unobstructed passage, from curb to curb, 
throughout the entire route of the procession. 

For rates of hack-fares between Boston proper and Charlestown 
passengers are directed to the list of fares posted in each carriage. 

The law against the discharge of firearms and fireworks will be 
promptly enforced, and all citizens are earnestly requested not to 
leave their dwellings unprotected, and to use every practical precau- 
tion against fire. 

EDWARD H. SAVAGE, 

Chief of Police. 
Office of the Chief of Police, 

Boston, June 14, 1875. 



THE RECEPTION IN MUSIC HALL. 




RECEPTION IN MUSIC HALL. 
Pfcawn by EDWIN A. ABBEY. Engraved by A. V. S. ANTHONY.] 



THE BECEPTION IN MUSIC HALL. 



On the evening of the 16th of June His Honor the Mayor 
and the Committee of Arrangements gave a reception, in Music 
Hall, to the distinguished visitors who purposed taking part in 
the celebration on the following day. 

The hall was very handsomely decorated with flowers, bunt- 
ing and drapery. On the front of the upper balcony there was 
anarch bearing the word "Welcome," in richly illuminated 
letters; and, just beneath, a representation of the City Seal, 
with the dates "1775" and "1875," in tablets on either side. 
At intervals during the evening music was furnished by the 
Germania Band. 

To facilitate the interchange of civilities between the city 
authorities and their guests, the seats in the body of the hall 
were removed ; and to accommodate the ladies, a portion of the 
seats in the first balcony were reserved. Among those who occu- 
pied seats on the platform, or who appeared there at different 
times during the evening, there were, the Vice-President of the 
United States, General William T. Sherman, Senator Ambrose 
E. Burnside; Mr. Justice Strong of the Supreme Court, U. S. ; 
Senor Don Francisco Gonzales Errazuriz, Charge d' Affaires from 
Chili; Mr. Stephen Preston, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 
Plenipotentiary from Hayti ; His Excellency William Gaston, 
Governor of Massachusetts ; His Excellency Nelson Dingley, 
Jr. , Governor of Maine ; His Excellency John J. Bagley, 
Governor of Michigan ; General Fitz Hugh Lee, of Virginia ; 
Colonel A. O. Andrews, of South Carolina, Captain J. W. 
4 



26 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Gilmer, of the Norfolk Blues ; General Judson 0. Kilpatrick ; 
Hon. E. W. Richardson, Mayor of Portland; Hon. R. L. 
Fulton, Mayor of Galveston, Texas. Among the organizations, 
or representatives of organizations, present in the hall there 
were, the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, S. C. ; the 
Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, of Norfolk, Va. ; the Fifth 
Maryland Regiment ; the Old Guard of New York ; the Light 
Infantry Veteran Association of Salem, Mass. ; the New Eng- 
land Society of New York; the Richmond (Va.) Commandery 
of Knights Templars ; the De Molay Commandery of Boston ; 
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, and 
the Bunker Hill Monument Association. 

Soon after eight o'clock the Mayor called the assemblage 
to order, and spoke as follows : — 

THE MAYOR'S WELCOME. 

Fellow- Citizens and Friends : — The event whose 
hundredth anniversary we celebrate to-morrow was one 
of a series* that resulted, in the creation of an indepen- 
dent nation. The battle of Bunker Hill, in a military 
view, was a defeat for the colonies ; but, in its moral and 
political fruits, it was a splendid success. Following 
close upon the collisions at Lexington and Concord, it 
fired the whole American heart, and aroused the entire 
American people, and made them thenceforth one people. 
While it fell to the lot of Massachusetts to lead off in 
the war of independence, she was not left to stand 
alone for a day. Responses of sympathy and pledges 
of co-operation came in as fast as news could fly and 
men could march. 

w It is surprising," writes General Gage at this period, 
w that so many of the other provinces interest themselves 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 27 

so much in this. They have warm friends in New York, 
and I learn that the people of Charleston, South 
Carolina, are as mad as they are here." 

"All Virginia," says Irving, "was in a state of 
combustion." 

" We must fight ! " said Patrick Henry. " I repeat it, 
sir, we must fight ! " 

In fifteen days the great Virginian, Washington him- 
self, was here at the head of the army. Then followed 
battle after battle, from Boston to Charleston, from 
Saratoga to Yorktown, till at length the thirteen 
provinces became thirteen States, and those thirteen 
States an empire that now spans the continent. Re- 
membering these things, we of the East do more than 
willingly accord to the people of the West and the 
South an equal share in the proud and grateful memories 
that belong to our revolutionary centennials ; and we, 
on our part, shall claim an equal share in theirs, as they 
recur from time to time, from '75 to '82. 

To-morrow's commemoration is no mere local affair. 
It must have a national significance, or it can have none. 
If it were only Boston or Massachusetts, or even New 
England, that cared for it, better that the famous story 
of Bunker Hill were blotted out of history, as the mer.e 
record of an ignominious failure. What is ours in these 
things belongs to all our countrymen as much, or it 
would be worthless to us ; and what is theirs is ours, or 
we should feel bereft of a splendid heritage. It is, 
therefore, with the deepest satisfaction that we, who are 
especially at home here, hail the coming of so many of 
our fellow-citizens from abroad and afar. Their pres- 



28 CENTENNIAL* ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

ence is a principal circumstance, and, to our eyes, the 
brightest feature of the occasion — a pledge that they 
are ready to share, and share alike with us, in the rich 
inheritance of the inspiring memories and traditions of 
the national birthtime, and that to their feeling, as to 
ours, the sons of their fathers and of our fathers, who 
stood shoulder to shoulder in that grand old time, are, 
and must be, brethren to-day. 

Under the inspirations of such a reunion, we feel that 
to-morrow will be such a red-letter day for Boston as 
can hardly shine for her more than once in a century. 
If the skies smile upon her there will be such a tide of 
life pulsing through her streets as she never knew before ; 
her spires and domes will wear such a radiance as the 
summer sun never gave them till now; the heart of 
Bunker Hill will throb audibly beneath the tread and 
the acclaim of the gathering multitudes; its granite 
shaft will loom up many cubits taller into the sky ; and 
the glorified forms of Prescott and Warren, and of their 
illustrious compeers who stood with them on the spot 
that day, or who sent them their sympathy, and were 
already hastening to their support from every quarter, 
or preparing to do the like deeds elsewhere, will almost 
be seen bending from the clouds and breathing benedic- 
tions on their children, who, after all the vicissitudes of 
a century, are found faithful to their trust, and worthy 
to hold and transmit their sacred inheritance of liberty 
and union. Under these circumstances the City Council, 
acting as they felt, and sure that it was in accord with 
the sentiment of the whole city, have desired me to 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 29 

invite our visitors to meet us here to-night for an 
interchange of greetings and felicitations. 

"We knew you were coming, gentlemen; and you have 
come as you promised, and as we hoped — in goodly 
numbers — in military, masonic, industrial, commercial 
and educational organizations — private citizens and rep- 
resentatives of the Nation, of the States and of many 
cities. You have come from every direction and all 
distances; from beyond the Kennebec and the Green 
Mountains; from beyond the Hudson, the Delaware and 
the Susquehanna, the Potomac and the James, the Edisto, 
the Savannah and the Tennessee; from beyond the Mis- 
sissippi and the Rocky Mountains. You could not come 
too numerously for our wishes and our welcome. Boston 
would be glad if she could fold the whole nation in her 
heart to-morrow, and make herself for the day, and in 
this her turn, the sacred Mecca of the entire American 
people. Without dissent or reservation she rejoices as 
one man in your coming; and in her name and behalf I 
bid you welcome ! — thrice welcome ! — T a thousand 
times welcome ! My clumsy northern tongue and un- 
practised lips cannot give adequate expression to the 
warmth and cordiality with which she bids me greet her 
guests and make them at home within her gates. And, 
if I mistake not, the crowds in our streets to-morrow will 
re-echo the greeting with an emphasis that you cannot 
fail to understand. You will unite with us, and that 
right heartily, I doubt not, in commemorating with rev- 
erence and gratitude the men and the deeds of a hundred 
years ago, and the ways in which an ever gracious Prov- 
idence, through many perils and difficulties, has led our 



30 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

country on and up to its present height of greatness and 
prosperity. 

And now, fellow-citizens, while we solemnly ring out 
the old century, let us hopefully ring in the new. It 
belongs to the men of to-day to inaugurate the second 
century of our country's life. The omens are propitious. 
The prospects of our national polity are brighter to-day, 
I think, than at any previous period. It has safely 
undergone all the tests that could be crowded into a 
century. It still stands, and may now be said to have 
almost passed the experimental stage, — at least as far 
as that can be said of any earthly polity. We have 
experienced all the trials and dangers by which the 
permanence of nations is put to the test. We have had 
the stringent test of unexampled prosperity and rapid ex- 
pansion, and have survived it. We have had commercial 
crises and industrial depressions of the severest character. 
We have had bitter political and sectional strifes. We 
have had foreign wars ; and, like all nations that have 
attained to greatness, we have had civil war, — and still 
we live. This last and supremest peril has passed away 
just in time to enable the country to enter upon the 
second century of its history with confidence and good 
cheer. We could not have said so, at least not so 
confidently, fifteen years ago, nor ten, nor even five. 
But now, not only is the war closed, but the ani- 
mosities which have accompanied and followed it are 
fading out; they are dying, — nay, they are as good as 
dead, and awaiting their burial ! To-morrow we will 
dig their grave ; at the greater centennial in Philadelphia, 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 31 

next year, we will heap tip a mound over them high as 
the Alleghanies ; and, before the day of Yorktown comes 
round, we shall have forgotten that they ever existed. 
In this benign work of reconciliation the soldiers on 
both sides have taken the lead. This was to be expected. 
True heroism harbors no resentments, and is incapable 
of a sullen and persistent hatred. True soldiers, worthy 
of the name, give and take hard blows in all honor and 
duty; and when the work is done, are ready to embrace 
as brothers in arms, and to let by-gones be by-gones, in 
all things except to preserve the memory and decorate 
the graves of their heroic dead, — ay, and of one another's 
dead. Brave men love brave men, with the magnanimity 
that knows how to honor each other's courage and 
respect each other's motives. Foemen in war, brothers 
in peace; — that is the history of chivalry here, as every- 
where. And all classes must needs follow the lead of 
their noble champions, and could not stand out against 
it, if they would. Even the weak and cowardly, and 
the political adventurers who live on the garbage of 
sectional jealousies and partisan embitterments, have 
to give in, at last, from very shame. Indications of 
the spreading and deepening of this sentiment of re- 
stored amity are coming in from all quarters. Here in 
Boston, I do not happen to know a single voice at 
variance with it; and that it is shared by yourselves, 
gentlemen of the South, is evidenced by your presence 
here to-night. You may have desired the issue of the 
war to have been other than it is, and may have felt, 
for a time, that all was lost save honor. I respect your 
convictions; but I believe you are wise enough, and 



32 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

magnanimous enough, to acquiesce loyally now, and in 
the end cheerfully, in the arbitrament of the God of 
battles, — assured, as you must be, that the overruling 
Providence is wiser than our wishes, and knows how to 
bestow richer benefits than those it withholds ; assured, 
too, that whatever was right and good in the lost cause 
which you loved is not finally lost, and that whatever 
was false or wrong in the winning cause cannot 
permanently triumph. The Almighty reigns, and 
shapes results more beneficently and more righteously 
than man can. 

All things considered, fellow-citizens, I regard our 
country as prepared to enter upon its second cen- 
tury with the best auguries and brightest hopes of 
peace and happiness. The burdens and privations 
resulting from the cost and the waste of war, on both 
sides, we must still bear for a time, as we are bearing 
them now, in this universal depression of industry and 
trade. But this evil is, in its nature, transient for a 
vigorous and thrifty people, and need count but little in 
our reckoning on the future, provided only that harmony 
and mutual confidence and good-will prevail and con- 
tinue. And these we must foster and defend. All 
depends on these. I am sure you will agree with me, 
gentlemen, that in the new century there need not be, 
and must not be, any North, or South, or East, or West, 
except in respect to those varieties of climate and 
production which stimulate industry, and give life to 
commerce, and multiply the sources of national wealth 
and power. While we cultivate friendly relations by the 
intercourse of trade and the amenities of social life, we 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 33 

must avoid the political intermeddling that endangers 
such relations. Let each State manage its own local 
affairs without interference, however well meant, from 
abroad, subject only to that Constitution which is at 
once a wholesome restraint and a protecting shield for 
us all. 

The old political issues have well-nigh passed away; 
one platform is very much like another. Old party lines 
are getting mixed and shadowy, so that little remains 
to distinguish them but their names. We are thus at 
liberty to seek the best men as rulers, without reference 
to party or locality, or anything but character and 
capacity, — honest men, who will neither steal nor per- 
mit stealing. The securing of a pure and upright govern- 
ment would be the best fruit of our restored harmony, and 
the best inauguration I know of for the new century. Let 
good men, in all sections, combine as one man for this end. 
There must still be parties, with or without the old 
names, — sharp antagonisms of opinion and policy. 
These are everywhere among the conditions of freedom 
and progress. They do not destroy, they invigorate, a 
nation. The only fatal divisions are those of sections. 
There must be none of these, — at least in that part of 
the century which our lifetime shall cover, and for which 
we are answerable. JSTo conflict of sections ! I give you 
my hand on that proposition, gentlemen, and I promise 
you every honest man's hand in Boston on that. And, 
if you will accept and return the pledge, it shall be 
kept; and we may trust our children and our children's 
children to maintain and perpetuate it. We must guard 
against the beginnings of alienation and distrust; and, 



34 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OP THE 

if ever we see any root of bitterness giving signs of 
springing up, let us set our heels upon it, yours and ours, 
and stamp it out before it has time to send up a single 
poison-shoot. 

But I detain you too long, gentlemen. Much formal 
address is not what we want to-night. We want rather 
to look into one another's faces, eye to eye. We want 
to give and take a hearty hand-grasp. We want to tell 
you, collectively and individually, that we shall be but 
too ready and glad to do all in our power to make your 
visit agreeable to you, and to convince you that the 
confidence in us which you show by coming is not mis- 
placed. We want to enable you to report to your people 
at home that you found nothing but brotherhood and 
good-fellowship here. We want to make the guests of 
a week the friends of a lifetime. We want you to feel 
as kindly towards Boston as Boston does towards your 
own fair cities of the South, to whom God grant health 
and wealth, prosperity and peace ! 

Once more, to all our guests, from far away and from 
near by, and from all points of the compass, I say in the 
city's name, and say it gratefully and heartily, Welcome 
to Boston and Bunker Hill! 

The Mayor's remarks were warmly applauded. After music 
by the band, he presented Governor Gaston, who spoke as 
follows : — 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 35 



REMARKS OF GOVERNOR GASTON. 

Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen : — My words will 
be few to-night; but I should poorly represent Massa- 
chusetts, as her heart now beats, if they were not 
charged with the warmest spirit of welcome. 

Massachusetts is honored by the presence of the sons 
and daughters of all the States who have come here 
from every part of this broad land to honor the memory 
of the soldiers and the statesmen who laid the foun- 
dations of a republic which now numbers forty millions 
of people. 

The early battles of the Revolution were fought on 
Massachusetts soil, but they were not fought for Mas- 
sachusetts alone. They were fought for the entire 
country, and the glory of these struggles is the com- 
mon heritage of us all. As, with emotions of reverent 
patriotism, you shall assemble around yonder shaft 
to-morrow, you will find its foundations deep enough and 
its proportions large enough to make it a fit monument 
of the nation's glory. 

As heirs of a common inheritance we meet and re- 
joice together to-night, and as brethren we will celebrate 
to-morrow. Massachusetts of 1875 is the Massachusetts 
of 1775. To our guests from the North and from the 
South, from the East and from the West, we say, ?? As 
our fathers greeted your fathers of old, so we now greet 
you." 

Under the ample folds of the old flag we meet as 
brethren; and as we are stepping upon the threshold of 
our second century, let us determine that we will make 



36 CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSARY OE THE 

its achievements in all the fields of civilization and peace 
worthy of a people whose birthright is freedom, whose 
policy is justice, and " whose God is the Lord." 

Under the influence of our glorious old memories, in 
the midst of the scenes where American liberty in its 
infancy was rocked, let us declare there shall be no 
more sectional strife. Let us declare there shall be no 
warfare, except such as a nation's safety and a nation's 
honor shall demand, and in that warfare let us all fight 
together, sympathizing with each other in every danger, 
and exulting together in every victory. 

At the close of the Governor's speech, Major Dexter H. Fol- 
lett and staff, of the First Battalion of Light Artillery, M. V. M. , 
entered the hall with General Fitz Hugh Lee and the officers of 
the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues. They were received with 
immense applause, and escorted to seats on the platform. 

The Mayor then said he had been informed that Colonel 
Andrews, of Charleston, South Carolina, was in the hall. 
The announcement was received with great enthusiasm, and 
when the Colonel came forward he was heartily cheered. 

REMARKS OE COLONEL A. O. ANDREWS. 

Fellow- Citizens of Massachusetts : — South Carolina 
receives with the deepest emotion the greetings of 
Massachusetts, — an emotion whose tenderness, whose in- 
tensity, whose amplitude, can only be measured as when 
twin sister meets twin sister, and the fiery tribulations, 
the estranging vicissitudes of the past, are put aside, all 
lost sight of, all forgotten, in the happy auguries of an 
unclouded and an undivided future. 



BATTLE OF BIWKEK HILL. 37 

How opportune is the happening of these centennials ! 
Yerily there is a Providence that, shapes our ends. 
Long, and rugged, and dark, may be the road, but in 
the fulness of His own good time He causeth light to 
shine, and in ways unthought by human ken brings 
about results that fill us with admiring wonder and sur- 
prise. Who can fail to be impressed, that, just at this 
especial juncture, we should be catching sight of, and 
coming up to, these hundred-mile stones in the journey 
of our common country, — at the very moment in our 
history when their sight and presence seem so season- 
able, so fortunate, so auspicious, so needed to admonish 
and to instruct, as well as to cheer and stimulate? First 
came Lexington and Concord. Old Mecklenburg fol- 
lowed, and in the echoes which yet linger around us we 
hear the music sounding again with all its primal fervid- 
ness and fire, struck from that old chord, as if first broke 
forth in notes of quickening fraternity, answering to 

"Where once the embattled farmers stood 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

To-day we gather in pious homage around our own 
consecrated shrine, and join with you in doing reverence 
where "Warren's blood was shed, and renew with you, 
in family pledge, the sacramental oath, that it shall not 
have been shed in vain. 

Whose heart shall not be lifted into a purer and a 
sweeter atmosphere, as he hears the tread, and feels the 
approach, of this grand procession of the mighty past? 
No dim and shadowy remembrance enclouds them; but 
they come, all corruscated with light. Like towering- 



38 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

cliffs, sublimely they lift their hoary heads. Shooting 
out amid the rapid current upon which we are surging, 
they turn our course. In reverential arrest, we pause 
and ponder. On their scarred fronts we read, furrowed 
in blood, " truths that wake, to perish never." In our 
inmost soul, we feel how full of blessing is their pres- 
ence ; how teemingly fruitful, if we but will it so, for a 
mightier, a far exceeding, a more glorious and benefi- 
cently harmonious future! How fraternizing, how 
hallowing is their influence ! 

" Oh, hushed be every thought that springs 
From out the bitterness of things." 

Lowly we bend, and ask a blessing and a benison, ere 
yet we hurry on in the voyage before us. 

It is in such a spirit we meet you to-day. Like the 
worn and jostled members of some large family at 
Christmas-tide, who have almost unlearned the season 
as one of merriment, a note of welcome comes for us from 
the old loved homestead. How the old tie tugs at our 
heart ! Our ears catch the gleeful chimes. Soon bursts 
out the once familiar carol, — 

" Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." 

Is this for us? Can we be included? The dear old 
chant rings out again — and all our misgivings melt 
away as in jubilant strain is wafted to heaven, " Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will to 
men." Yes, we come! True, in our hands we bring no 
precious vase, in whose rich loam flowers the costly ex- 
otic. We come in homely garb, and with broken cup ; 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 39 

but in that cup is a soil which yonder column will rec- 
ognize — it is from old Moultrie's sand-bank. You 
shall plant therein the olive-branch. Old Bunker Hill 
will catch the gracious dews as they fall from heaven, 
and gently drop them to nourish its growth, and under 
its stately shaft it shall find shelter from the scorching 
sun. 

Yes, this is the temper in which we meet you to-day 
— even as in olden Christmas-tide — and We will closely 
gather around your honored Yule log, and, as its fragrant 
smoke curls up, tell o'er with you, in garrulous gossip, 
of the grand old days a hundred years ago, when in 
bloody sweat and travail of soul were laid the founda- 
tions of this goodly heritage, — alike for us and for you, 
for South as for North, for West as for East, — from 
whose lofty towers shall be forever flung its standard of 
love waving in the breezes of heaven, and inscribed, so 
that all afar off may read, " Come unto me all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
And, oh, see, from our sculptured urns, with what 
pleased yet anxious serenity look down upon us Warren 
and Prescott, and Quincy and Hancock, and Otis and 
Adams, and, interlocking their arms, Gadsden and 
Moultrie, and Marion and Rutledge and Sumter! And 
there comes William Washington ! How his face glows 
with its old fire, as he catches sight of, and points How- 
ard and Morgan to his cherished oriflamme, — 

" Which at Eutaw shone so bright, 
And as a dazzling meteor swept 
Through the Cowpens' deadly fight." 



40 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

Old Bunker Hill grasps it in his arms, and by the mem- 
ory of their ancient love, by the recollection of their 
blood- wrought struggles, by the tender recall of the 
triumphing cheer which is so often wafted from the 
swamps and fastnesses of the South, he kisses it with 
fervor true as ancient knight, and, in clarion tones, rings 
out his tribute to the inspiring guerdon of " a woman 
withal — but a woman whom Brutus took to wife, and 
daughter to Cato ! " 

And now, my friends, when this hallowed jubilation 
is o'er, and we go back to our homes, what message 
shall we carry to our reverenced old mother? Never 
were her sons prouder of her. Never clung they 
with more filial closeness to her than now in the day 
of her adversity. Corruption has harried her — mis- 
rule has revelled over her; but there she stands, 
patient and undaunted, in all her matronly purity; never 
more worthy of our love than as, unruffled amid her 
assailants, she gathers up the courtly folds of her robe 
in majestic self-rectitude, her stately eye beaming with 
the fires of an unstained birthright, and casting to the 
dust, by its transfigured light, the approaches of insult 
and dishonor. To her ear the national harp has oft 
been made to sound " like sweet bells jangled out of 
tune and harsh." But there is a chord in that harp, a 
golden chord, which still vibrates in her heart, " musical 
as Apollo's lute," charming as the harp of Orpheus. 
It is the chord of these ancient memories ; it is the string 
in that harp, which runs from Moultrie to Bunker Hill. 
It is the key which, struck at Concord and Lexington, 
vibrates to Eutaw and King's Mountain. Shall we tell 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 41 

her that you have struck that chord, and that you have 
struck it with the note, and the music, and the trueness 
of its ancient song? If so, then indeed shall this day's 
celebration cause Bunker Hill to be treasured up as the 
shadow of a great rock, bringing rest, and refreshment, 
and hope, to pilgrims worn, and heavy, and weary. 
Then shall we 

" Press heavily" onward ; not in vain 
Your generous trust in human kind ; 
The good which bloodshed could not gain 
Your peaceful zeal shall find." 

General Fitz Hugh Lee, of Virginia, was then presented 
and greeted with enthusiastic cheers by the men, and the 
waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies. When the excitement 
had somewhat subsided, he spoke as follows : — 

REMARKS OF GENERAL FITZ HUGH LEE. 

Mr. Mayor and Ladies and Gentlemen : — I thank 
you for this most cordial welcome you have ex- 
tended to my comrades and myself. . I came here 
with the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, a Confederate 
organization, whose guns have roared upon many a 
hard-fought field. As we arrived before your city this 
afternoon, and were steaming up your beautiful harbor, 
the first notes that reached me from the band of music 
sent to meet us were of that good old tune called 
"Auld Lang Syne;" and I felt I was not going to 
Boston, but that I was returning again to a common 
country and a common heritage. I should have wished 
that my poor presence would have passed unnoticed, 



42 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

and that I might have been permitted to have remained 
a silent visitor in Boston. 

When I remember that this is the first time I have 
ever stepped on the soil of Massachusetts, I necessarily 
feel some embarrassment at addressing such a splendid 
audience as is before me; but when I reflect that I am 
an American citizen — that I, too, am a descendant of 
those men who fought on Bunker Hill — I feel that I, 
too, have a right to be here to celebrate their splendid 
deeds. 

We come here, fellow-citizens, to show that we ^ap- 
preciate the achievements of those patriotic forefathers 
of ours, — those men who planted the seeds from which 
our nation sprung. We are here to show by our 
actual presence that we are fully in sympathy with the 
sentiment which found expression upon the recent 
Decoration Days, when loving hands entwined beautiful 
flowers about the graves of the soldiers of both armies 
without distinction. 

I recall that, right here in Boston, one hundred years 
ago, a patriotic divine spoke in substance as follows : 
" We pray thee, O Lord, if our enemies are desirous to 
fight us, to give them fighting enough; and if there are 
more on their way across the sea, we pray thee, O Lord, 
to sink them to the bottom of it." ]STow, when I see 
this magnificent demonstration, when my eyes look on 
yours, beaming with friendliness and heartfelt good-will 
toward me and mine, I feel that hereafter, if foreign or 
domestic foes threaten our common country, Massa- 
chusetts and Virginia, California and Florida, would 



BATTLE Or BUNKEK HILL. 43 

shout with one voice, " If they desire to fight, let them 
have enough." 

I may be pardoned if I recall to your minds that in 
those days of darkness, when the clouds of war envel- 
oped your Commonwealth, my State of Yirginia sent 
right here into your midst him who, in the language of 
my grandfather, was " first in .peace, first in war, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen ; " he, in the 
language of Andrew Jackson, " whose character cannot 
be too profoundly studied and his example too closely 
followed." Washington appeared here in your midst, 
brought order out of confusion, and saved our country. 
I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, most cordially for 
the manner in which you have received me. 

General Judson C. Kilpatrick was next introduced, and 
cordially received. 

REMARKS OF GEN. J. O. KILPATRICK. 

Fellow- Citizens : ■ — I am proud and happy to assemble 
with you here to-night on an occasion so important, not 
only to the people of Massachusetts, but of the whole 
nation, — an occasion involving elements so sublime, 
elements which inspire feelings of patriotism worthy of 
Greece in her best days. It was not my intention to 
say a word to-night. I entered here but a few 
moments ago, and had the pleasure of hearing Fitz 
Hugh Lee, of Yirginia, a Confederate soldier, who was 
my cavalry instructor at West Point, and whom I met 
on many a bloody battle-field in the late war of the 
rebellion. And I rejoice, fellow-citizens, to have him 



44 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

come here to-night, and in the presence of this magnifi- 
cent audience shake hands once again with ns beneath 
the same old Union flag, which is his banner as well as 
ours. I recognize the fact that it is ten long years 
since the last hostile shot was fired and since the war- 
clouds rolled away. 

[At this point General Shekman appeared upon the platform, 
and was loudly cheered.] 

It will not be becoming in me to continue in the 
presence of one so well known to this great nation, and 
whom you would much rather hear speak. [Cries of 
" Go on. We'll hear him next."] I was about saying 
that ten long years have passed and gone since the last 
hostile shot was fired. Monuments of stone rear aloft 
their heads to heaven to-day from almost every northern 
village, telling of the patriotic deeds of the brave men 
who fought in freedom's cause. Little green mounds 
scattered all over the sunny South are watered alone by 
women's tears, and women on bended knees are pray- 
ing over the ruins of what were once palatial homes, 
and weeping burning tears for dear ones who will return 
no more. And yet, I know there are men in this 
country who say "It served them right;" but if they 
would follow over the wasted stretch of Sherman's 
march they would find that the beautiful sun shines 
there, that grain may grow, and that green grass and, 
flowers forever bloom above the spots where brothers 
beneath opposing banners struggled for the mastery. 
Let us shake hands here to-night on this happy centen- 
nial of the battle of Bunker Hill. Let us unite the ]N"orth 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 45 

and South, and resolve that the same old flag, henceforth 
and forever, before us or around us, shall be the pride of 
our triumph and the shroud of our burial. 

REMAKES OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
General Sherman was then presented. He said : — 

I came here to-night to attend a levee of the Mayor of 
the city of Boston, with no intention of speaking one 
word; and I hope you will pardon me if I merely ex- 
press myself somewhat amazed to find myself upon the 
platform here to-night in the presence of so many gentle- 
men of Boston, every one of whom can make a better 
speech than I can. To-morrow you will hear General 
Devens make a great speech, worthy the occasion, and 
I want to hear it very much, — so much that I have come 
fifteen hundred miles to hear it. I want also to stand 
where Bunker Hill once stood. It is all graded down 
now ; but the memory of the spot will last long after 
all of us have disappeared from this earth. Brave 
deeds, noble actions, there made the beginning of our 
nation. The deeds done that day, the thoughts thought 
that day, the courage manifested that day, should make 
that spot as pure and holy as any spot that can inspire a 
race. I therefore simply ask you, gentlemen, whose 
faces are turned toward me to-night, to think of the men 
who died that day. What has been the result? A 
nation was born that is influencing the world, and we are 
come thousands of miles to celebrate. its birthday, — one 
hundred years ago. May you all be better for it, and 
purer for it, and truer for it, and kinder to each other. 



46 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OP THE 



REMARKS OF GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. 

General Burnside was next introduced by the Mayor. He 
said : — 

I came here to-night as a spectator, and I am not in 
the least prepared to address such an audience as this. 
I am a clumsy speaker at best, and it is not proper that 
I should attempt, on the spur of' the moment, to say 
anything to an assemblage like this. The occasion is 
one of great importance, and every patriotic heart in 
the country should be impressed with it. It is my hope 
and prayer that these centennial days may be so ob- 
served as to blot out all feelings of envy or malice 
which were engendered by the late war. I am free to 
say here to-night that I am ready to do everything on the 
face of the earth to accomplish this ; I will do anything 
but acknowledge we were wrong in what we did to 
suppress the rebellion. 

REMARKS OE VICE-PRESIDENT WILSON. 

At the close of General Burnside's address there were calls 
for the Honorable Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the United 
States. Yielding reluctantly to the demand made upon him, Mr. 
Wilson said : — 

I respond to your call only for a moment, and I re- 
spond for the reason that I cannot say no. We have 
listened to-night, while we have been welcomed by the 
Mayor of the city of Boston, who has spoken the words 
of the whole city. This vast audience has been wel- 
comed here to-night — men from all sections of our 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 47 

country — by the Governor of the State of Massachu- 
setts, and I believe he has spoken the words of all the 
people of this good old Commonwealth. We have 
heard a response from South Carolina, and we have 
welcomed it. We have heard a voice from Old Vir- 
ginia, and we have welcomed and applauded it. Here, 
to-night, as a citizen of this Commonwealth, I welcome 
these men, from all sections of the country, to Massa- 
chusetts; and I trust, with God's blessing, this oc- 
casion will be consecrated to patriotism, to manhood, 
to full and impartial liberty to all men of every kindred 
and race. 

I trust that we shall begin the coming century of our 
country with an acceptance of the sublime doctrine of 
human right that one hundred years ago animated the 
men who bared their breasts on Bunker Hill. I believe 
I have seen already in the South, in the West, in the 
central States, that this anniversary festival of ours, call- 
ing us back to our early history and the grand achieve- 
ments of our fathers, is accomplishing more for our 
country than anything that is happening. It is bringing 
and cementing together the hearts of our people, and 
Christian men on bended knees should pray for it, patri- 
otic men should labor for it, and we should know that we 
live in a country that is to be our country; that we live in 
a country where men of all races are brothers. I believe, 
gentlemen, that we should all strive for harmony, unity, 
justice, for equal rights to everybody in our land. 

This closed the formal part of the exercises, and introduc- 
tions and conversation followed. 



THE PKOOESSION 




TRIUMPHAL ARCH. ENTRANCE TO CITY. HALL SQUARE, CHARLESTOWN. 

[Drawn by EDWIN A. ABBEY. Engraved by W. J. LINTON.] 



THE PEOCESSION. 



The General Court having made the Seventeenth of June, 
1875, a legal public holiday, the public buildings and offices 
throughout the State were closed, and all business, except that 
connected with the celebration, was suspended. At an early 
hour in the morning the various organizations which were to 
take part in the proceedings of the day began to arrive in the 
city and take position in the places assigned to them. The 
streets were thronged by people from all parts of the country, 
who were desirous of witnessing what promised to be the most 
extensive and magnificent military and civic display ever made 
in New England. 

The favorable state of the weather added greatly to the 
success of the occasion ; a mild east wind prevailed throughout 
the day, and tempered the heat so that those who marched in 
the procession, and those who stood long hours in the streets to 
see it pass, were enabled to do so without discomfort. 

All the public buildings and many private dwellings and 
places of business, especially those along the route of the pro- 
cession, were handsomely decorated with flags, bunting and 
flowers. At all points of historic interest connected with the 
battle of Bunker Hill, or with the revolutionary period, inscrip- 
tions were placed, giving a clear and concise statement of the 
event to be commemorated. 

Across the northerly end of Charles-river avenue, where the 
procession entered City square, Charlestown, a triumphal arch 
was erected. One of the pillars bore a representation of the 



52 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

battle of Bunker Hill, with the date "1775" beneath; on the 
other was a view of the present Monument, and the date " 1875." 
On the keystone of the arch was inscribed 

"HEROES OF BUNKER HILL," 

and on either side were the names of Prescott, Putnam, 
Warren, Knowlton, Stark, and Pomerov, —the one first 
mentioned occupying the highest place of honor. 

At nine o'clock in the morning the members of the City 
Government, the guests of the city, and the persons invited 
by His Honor the Mayor to join the procession, assembled at the 
City Hall, and proceeded thence, by invitation of His Excellency 
the Governor, to the State House, to witness the military review. 

At ten o'clock the troops moved from their rendezvous on 
the Common, passing out at the corner of Charles street and 
Boylston street, and marched through Boylston, Tremont and 
Beacon streets, past the reviewing party, which occupied a 
platform in front of the State House. 

The movement of the procession was somewhat delayed by 
the review, and it was not until a quarter past one o'clock that 
the Chief Marshal was enabled to enter upon the line of march. 
The formation was as follows : — 

The Chief of Police, with fifteen mounted men. 

The Fall River Brass Band. 

The Fourth Battalion of Infantry M. V. M., Major Austin C. 

"Wellington commanding. 

General Francis A. Osborn, Chief Marshal. 

The Members of his Staff, namely : — 

Col. W. V. Hutchings, Chief of Staff. 

Col. Cornelius G. Attwood, Adjutant General. 

Col. Solomon Hovey, Jr., Assistant Adjutant General. 



BATTLE OF BLWKEE, HILL. 



53 



Capt. James Thompson, Chief Quartermaster. 
Lieut. Edward B. Richardson, Chief Signal Officer. 



Mr. James Swords, 
Capt. Nathan Appleton, 
Capt. Geo. P. Denny, 
Mr. W. A. Tower, 
G-en. W. W. Blackmar, 
Col. W. H. Long, 
Col. Chas. H. Hooper, 
Mr. Jas. Lawrence, 
Mr. A. G-. Hodges, 
Col. Nathaniel Wales, 
Mr. Samuel Tuckerman, 
Capt. G. A. Churchill, 
Mr. Arthur L. D evens, 
Capt. W. A. Couthouy, 
Mr. M. S. P. Williams, 
Col. Geo. C. Joslin, 
Mr. Otis Kimball, Jr., 
Col. Louis N. Tucker, 
Col. John C. Whiton, 
Mr. M. A. Aldrich, 
Mr. J. R. Wolston, 
Mr. Wm. M. Paul, 



Mr. M. F. Dickinson, Jr., 

Mr. B. F. Hatch, 

Mr. Howard L. Porter, 

Capt. Geo. A. Fisher, 

Mr. Wendell Goodwin, 

Capt. John Read, 

Mr. A. W. Hobart, 

Major William P. Shreve, 

Capt. A. E. Proctor, 

Lieut. H. G. O. Colby, 

Capt. Edward F. Devens, 

Mr. H. G. Parker, 

Capt. Chas. A. Campbell, 

Mr. John B. Draper, 

Mr. C. G. Pease, 

Lieut. Augustus N. Sampson, 

Mr. James G. Freeman, 

Mr. E. P. Kennard, 

Mr. F. W. Lincoln, Jr., 

Mr. G. Henry Williams, 

Capt. John H. Alley. 



Signal Corps. 



MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER MILITIA. 

Brown's Brigade Band. 
The First Corps of Cadets M. V. M., Lieutenant Colonel Thomas 

F. Edmands commanding. 
His Excellency William Gaston, Governor and Commander-iu- 

Chief. 
The Members of his Staff, namely : — 

Major Gen. James A. Cunningham, Adjutant General. 
Col. Isaac F. Kingsbury, Assistant Adjutant General. 
Col. Albert A. Haggett, Assistant Inspector General. 



54 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

Brig. Gen. P. A. Collins, Judge Advocate General. 
Col. Charles W. Wilder, Assistant Quartermaster General. 
Brig. Gen. William J. Dale, Surgeon General. 
Col. Joshua B. Treadwell, Assistant Surgeon General. 
Col. Edward Lyman, Col. James A. Rumrill, Col. Leverett S. 
Tuckerman, Col. Edward Gray, Aids to Commander-in-Chief. 
Col. George H. Campbell, Military Secretary. 
The Salem Brass Band. 
The Second Corps of Cadets M. V. M., Lieutenant Colonel A. 

' Parker Browne commanding. 
Major General Benjamin F. Butler, commanding Division Massa- 
chusetts Militia. 
The Members of his Staff, namely : — 

Col. Edgar J. Sherman, Assistant Adjutant General. 
Col. Yorick G. Hurcl, Medical Director. 
Lieut. Col. Edward J. Jones, Assistant Inspector General. 
Lieut. Col. George J. Carney, Assistant Quartermaster. 
Major John W. Kimball, Engineer. 
Major Roland G. Usher, Aide-de-camp. 
Major Edwin L. Barney, Judge Advocate. 
The Second Brigade M. V. M., Brigadier General George H. 
Peirson commanding. 
The Lynn Brass Band. 
The Eighth Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Benjamin F. Peach, Jr., 

commanding. 
The Sixth Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Melvin Beal commanding. 

The Fifth Regiment Band. 
The Fifth Regiment, of Infantry, Colonel Ezra J. Trull commanding. 

The Lawrence Brass Band. 
The Second Battalion of Light Artillery, Major George S. Merrill 

commanding. 
The Dunstable Cornet Band. 
Company F, Unattached Cavalry, Chelmsford, Captain Christopher 

Roby commanding. 
The First Brigade M. V. M., Brigadier General Isaac S. Burrell 

commanding. 



BATTLE OP BIINKER HILL. 55 

The Ninth Regiment Band. 
The Ninth Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Bernard F. Finan com- 
manding. 
The First Regiment Band. 
The First Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Henry W. Wilson com- 
manding. 
The Third Regiment Band. 
The Third Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Bradford D. Davol com- 
manding. 
The National Band, Boston. 
The Second Battalion of Infantry, Major Lewis Gaul commanding. 

The Woonsocket Brass Band. 
The First Battalion of Light Artillery, Captain Charles W. Baxter 

commanding. 

The Chelsea Brass Band. 

The First Battalion of Cavalry, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Roberts 

commanding. 
The Third Brigade M. V. M., Brigadier General Robert H. 
Chamberlain commanding. 
The Hartford City Band. 
The Second Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Joseph B. Parsons com- 
manding. 
Richardson's Band, Worcester. 
The Tenth Regiment of Infantry, Colonel James M. Drennan 

commanding. 

The Worcester National Band. 

The Fifth Battery of Light Artillery, Captain John G. Rice 

commanding. 



FIRST DIVISION. 

Major Henry L. Higginson, Chief of Division. 
Aids : Captain John C. Jones, Assistant Adjutant General ; 
Mr. Henry Upham, Mr. Wm. B. Bacon, Jr., Mr. A. C. Tower, 
Mr. Daniel C. Bacon, Mr. Frank Seabury. 



56 CENTENNIAL ANNIYEESAET OP THE 

This division was composed of military organizations from other 
States, namely : — 

The Seventh Regiment Band and Drum Corps, New York. 

The Seventh Regiment National Guard, State of New York, Colonel 

Emmons Clark commanding. 

The First Regiment Band, Pennsylvania. 

The First Regiment National Guard of Pennsylvania, Colonel R. 

Dale Benson commanding. 

The Second Regiment Band, Pennsylvania. 

The Second Regiment National Guard of Penns3dvania, Lieutenant 

Colonel Harmanius Neff commanding. 

Ringold's Band, Reading, Pa. 

The State Fencibles, Philadelphia, Pa., Captain John W. Ryan 

commanding. 
McClurg's Qornet Band, Philadelphia. 
The Washington Grays, of Philadelphia, Captain Louis D. Baugh 

commanding. 

The Independence Band, Wilmington, Del. 

The Philadelphia Gray Invincibles, Captain A. Oscar Jones 

commanding. 

The American Brass Band, Providence, R. I. 

The First Rhode Island Light Infantry Regiment, Colonel R. H. I. 

Goddard commanding. 

The National Band, Providence, R. I. 

The Meagher Guards, Providence, R. I., Captain Peter McHugh 

commanding. 

Colt's Armory Band, Hartford, Conn. 

The Hillyer Guards^ Hartford, Conn., Captain John T. Sherman 

commanding. 

Repetti's Band, Washington, D. C. 

The Washington Light Infantry, Washington, D. C, Captain William 

G. Moore commanding. 
The Governor Straw Rifles, Manchester, N. II., Colonel John J. 

Dillon commanding. 
The Mansfield Guard, Middletown, Conn., Captain R. Graham 

commanding. 



BATTLE OP BUXKEE, HILL. 57 

The Marine Band, U. S. N., Washington, D. C. 
The Fifth Maryland Regiment, Colonel J. Strieker Jenkins 

commanding. 



SECOND DIVISION. 

Colonel Henry R. Sibley, Chief of Division. 

Aids : Captain George R. Kelso, Assistant Adjutant General ; Mr. 
Retire H. Parker, Mr. John H. Dee, Mr. George T. Childs, Mr. 
Edwin F. Peirce. 

This division included the City Government of Boston, the Guests 
of the City, the State Government of Massachusetts, and the Guests 
of the State, in carriages. The formation was as follows : — 

Edmands' Military Band, with Drum Corps. 

Companies D and E, Fifth Artillery, U. S. A., Brevet Major 

General Richard Arnold, U. S. A., commanding. 

City Government and Guests. 

His Honor Samuel C. Cobb, Mayor of Boston ; and His Honor 

William H. Wickham, Mayor of New York. 

General Fitz John Porter, Commissioner of Public Works, New York ; 

Colonel E. L. Gaul, Secretary to the Mayor of New York ; 

Nelson H. Tappan, the Comptroller of New York. 

Aldermen John T. Clark and Thomas B. Harris; His Honor 

R. L. Fulton, Mayor of Galveston, Texas ; and 'Colonel Etting, 

representing His Honor William S. Stokely, Mayor 

of Philadelphia. 

Aldermen S. B. Stebbins and S. M. Quincy ; His Honor Peter Jones, 

Mayor of Jacksonville, Fla. ; and His Honor Joshua L. Simons, 

Mayor of Wilmington, Del. 

Alderman James Power, and Halsey J. Boardman, Esq., President of 

the Common Council ; His Honor W. P. Connerlay, Mayor of 

Wilmington, N. C. ; and His Honor R. M. Richardson, 

Mayor of Portland, Me. 

Councilmen Edwin Sibley and Isaac P. Clarke ; His Honor Henry G. 

Lewis, Mayor of New Haven, Conn. ; and His Honor Alpheus 

Gay, Mayor of Manchester, N. H. 



58 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

Councilmen Francis H. Peabody and John N. Devereux ; Alderman 
Mackey of Charleston, S. C. ; and Hon. William Bigler of 
Philadelphia, Financial Agent Centennial Commission. 
Councilmen Eugene H. Sampson and Curtis Guild ; General Joseph 
R. Hawle} T , President of the U. S. Centennial Commission ; and 
Alfred T. Goshorn, Esq., Director General U. S. Centennial 
Commission. 
Hon. Daniel J. Morrell, Chairman Executive Committee U. S. 
Centennial Commission ; Dr. Buckminster Brown, husband of 
the grand-daughter of General Joseph Warren ; Warren Put- 
nam Newcomb, great-great-grandson of General Warren 
and General Putnam ; and Dr. Edward Warren. 
His Honor Henry L. Williams, Mayor of Salem ; His Honor Isaac 
Bradford, Mayor of Cambridge ; His Honor Abraham H. 
Howland, Mayor of New Bedford ; and His Honor 
Jacob M. Lewis, Mayor of L3 r nn. 
His Honor D. F. Atkinson, Mayor of Newburyport ; His Honor R. H. 
Tewksbury, Mayor of Lawrence ; His Honor James F. Davenport, 
Mayor of Fall River ; and His Honor Charles H. Ferson, 
Mayor of Chelsea. 
His Honor George H. Babbitt, Mayor of Taunton ; His Honor Wm. 
H. Furber, Mayor of Somerville ; His Honor W. B. Pearsons, 
Mayor of Holyoke ; and His Honor Robert R. Fears, 
Mayor of Gloucester. 
His Honor James F. C. Hyde, Mayor of Newton; Hon. Charles 

Francis Adams ; and Hon. William Gray. 
Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hon. Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Mr. 

Joseph Heywood, of Concord, and Hon. Otis Norcross. 
Mr. W. H. Munroe, of Lexington; Hon. Josiah Quincy, Hon. 

Alexander H. Rice, and Hon. Joseph M. Wightman. 
Dr. J. V. C. Smith, Mr. John Cummings, of Woburn ; Hon. J. J. 

Clarke, and Hon. Linus B. Comins. 
Hon. Geo. Lewis, Hon. S. S. Sleeper, Mr. Joseph W. Tucker, 

and Hon. E. L. Norton. 

Hon. Liverus Hull, Hon. P. J. Stone, Hon. Jas. Adams, and His 

Honor AlpheUs Currier, Mayor of Haverhill. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 59 

Members of the City Council of Boston (not included in the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements) , and heads of City Departments. 
The American Band of Cambridge. 
The National Lancers, Captain Cyrus C. Emery commanding. 
The State Government and Guests. 
Hon. Henry Wilson, the Vice-President of the United States ; Hon. 
George B. Loring, President of the Massachusetts Senate ; 
Mr. Justice Strong, of the United States Supreme Court ; 
and Rev. W. E. Strong, of Roxbury. 
Hon.WillardP. Phillips, of Salem ; Mr. SamuelMay, of Leicester ; His 
Excellency Stephen Preston, the Haytien Minister ; and 
His Excellency Senor Don Francisco Gonzales 
Errazuriz, the Chilian Minister. 
General William T. Sherman, Major General Irwin McDowell, Col. 
J. C. Audenried, of Gen. Sherman's staff; and 
Hon. E. D. Winslow. 
Bvt. Major General Nelson A. Miles,' 5th Infantry U. S. A. ; Bvt. 
Brigadier General O. M. Poe, U. S. A. ; Bvt. Brigadier 
General J. E. Tourtellotte, of General Sherman's staff; 
and Bvt. Major General E. W. Hinks. 
General T. J. Haines, Col. Theodore T. S. Laidley, Captain W. R. 

Livermore, and C. E. Jewett. 

Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, United States Senator from Maine ; Hon. 

Thomas W. Ferry, United States Senator from Michigan ; 

Hon. George S. Boutwell, United States Senator 

from Massachusetts ; and Mr. Enoch H. 

Towne, of Worcester. 

Gen. Thomas Kilby Smith, of Gen. Sherman's staff; Hon. C. P. 

Thompson, Hon. B. W. Harris, and Hon. Rufus S. Frost, 

Representatives in Congress from Massachusetts. 

Hon. Eugene Hale, and Hon. John H. Burleigh, Representatives in 

Congress from Maine ; Hon. John K. Tarbox, Representative 

in Congress from Massachusetts ; and 

Judge Waldo Colburn. 

Chandler's Band, of Portland. 

The Portland Cadets, Captain N. D. Winslow commanding, 

escorting 



60 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

His Excellency Nelson Dingley, Jr., Governor of Maine, and staff; 

Speaker Thomas, of the Maine House of Representatives, and 

Hon. Francis D. Stedman, of the Massachusetts Senate. 

His Excellency Person C. Cheney, Governor of New Hampshire, 

and staff. 

Drum Corps. 

First Company Governor's Foot Guard of Hartford, Major John C. 

Parsons commanding, 

escorting 

His Excellency Charles R. Ingersoll, Governor of Connecticut, and 

staff; General Walter Harriman, U. S. Naval Officer, and 

General A. B. Underwood, U. S. Surveyor, of Boston. 

His Excellency Henry S. Lippitt, Governor of Rhode Island, and 

staff. 

His Excellency Joseph D. Bedle, Governor of New Jersey, and staff; 

and Hon. T. J. Dacey, of the Massachusetts Senate. 

The first troop of City Cavalry, Philadelphia, 

escorting 

His Excellency John F. Hartranft, Governor of Pennsylvania, and 

staff, mounted. 
His Excellency Adelbert Ames, Governor of Mississippi ; His Excel- 
lency J. D. Bagley, Governor of Michigan ; Hon. George F. 
Shepley, Judge of the United States Circuit Court ; and Hon. 
George P. Sanger, U. S. District Attorney. 
Mr. Chief Justice Gray and Associate Justices Wells, Endicott and 

Ames, of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. 
Col. George L. Browne, of the Old Guard, State Fencibles of Phila- 
delphia ; ex-Gov. Emory Washburn ; Hon. Wm. A. Simmons, 
Collector of the port of Boston. 
Lieut.-Gov. Horatio G. Knight, and Hon. Geo. Whitney, Hon. Seth 

Turner and Hon. Geo. O. Brastow, of the Executive Council. 
Hon. E. H. Brewster, Hon. Alden Leland, Hon. J. K. Baker and 

Hon. E. H. Dunn, of the Executive Council. 

Hon. R. Couch ; Senator Wm. H. Phillips of Berkshire ; and Senator 

Geo. A. Davis, of Essex. 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 61 

Hon. Oliver Warner, Secretary of State; Hon. Charles Adams, Jr., 
Treasurer and Receiver-General ; Hon. Charles Endicott, Audi- 
tor ; and Hon. Charles R. Train, Attorney-General. 
Mr. Charles Hale of the House ; Ensign H. Kellogg, Charles A. 
Phelps, ex-Speakers of the House of Representatives ; and Col. 
Joseph A. Harwood, of the Senate. 
The members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
General Court of Massachusetts. 



THIRD DIVISION. 

Colonel Charles E. Fuller, Chief of Division. 

AIDS. 

Col. F. R. Appleton, Assistant Adjutant General ; Col. S. D. Warren, 

Jr., Col. J. H. Welles, Capt. Roswell C. Downer, 

Lieut. Henry E. Warner, Col. J. L. Baker. 

This division was composed of the following organizations : — 

The Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion of the United States, under command of Gen. Francis W. 
Palfrej', accompanied by Major General A. E. Burnside. 
[On the top of the staff which bore their banner was perched 
a solid silver eagle, which was presented to the New 
England Guards, by Arnold Wells, in 1812. It 
was carried by the Guards at the laying of 
the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment, 1825, and again at the 
completion of the Monu- 
ment, 1843.] 
The Bunker Hill Monument Association, in carriages ; President 
George Washington Warren ; with Hon. Charles 
Devens, Jr., the orator of the day. 



62 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

The Officers of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, Percival 
L. Everett, Grand Master. [The Grand Master wore the apron 
which belonged to General Joseph "Warren at the time 
of his death. Dr. Winslow Lewis, Deputy Grand 
Master, wore the apron once belonging to 
Gen. Lafayette, and which was worn 
at the laying of the corner-stone 
of Bunker Hill Monument.] 
The carriage formerly belonging to Governor Eustis, and in which 
Lafayette was accustomed to ride when he was his guest, 
occupied by Mr. William E. Baker, the present 
owner, and by Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, 
President of the New England 
Historic-Genealogical 
Society. 
The New England Historic-Genealogical Society, in carriages. 
Delegates : Hon. Israel Washburn, Jr., Maine ; W. B. 
Towne, Esq., New Hampshire ; Hon. William 
Hill, Vermont ; Hon. John I. Bartlett, 
Rhode Island. 
The American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, in a carriage. 
Delegates : S. F. Haven, Esq. , Dr. Joseph 
Sargent, Dr. Rufus Woodward, 
Dr. Nathaniel Paine. 
Pilgrim Association of Plymouth. Delegates : W. T. Davis, Presi- 
dent ; I. N. Stoddard, W. S. Danforth, E. C. 
Sherman, W. H. Whitman. 
The Massachusetts Society of the Order of the Cincinnati. 
Forty delegates in carriages, under President 
Admiral H. K. Thatcher. 
Eliot Band of Boston. 
The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association, President 

Nathaniel Adams. 
Massachusetts Veterans of 1812. Association represented by Major 

Nathan Warren. 
The Boston Charitable Irish Society, Bernard Corr, President. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 63 



FOURTH DIVISION. 
Col. Thos. L. Livermore, Chief of Division. 

AIDS. 

Col. Charles E. Hapgood, Assistant Adjutant General ; Col. Thomas 

E. Barker, Col. Daniel K. Cross, Major Benj. F. Weeks, 

Major Geo. E. Fayerweather. 

This division was composed of veteran organizations formed into a 

Brigade, under the command of Major Dexter H. Follett, as 

follows : — 

The Germania Band of Boston. 

The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, organized in 1638, 

Major General Nathaniel P. Banks commanding. 

The Redwood Band of Newport, R. I. 

The Newport (R. I.) Artillery Veteran Association, organized in 

1741, Colonel Julius Sayer commanding, accompanied 

by officers of the Newport Artillery Company. 

The United States Naval Band of Portsmouth, N. H. 

The Newburyport, Mass.,- Veteran Artillery Company, organized in 

1775, Col. E. E. Stone commanding. 

The Saunders Band of Peabody, Mass. 

The Salem (Mass.) Light Infantry Veteran Association, organized in 

1805, Col. John F. Fellows commanding. 

The Veteran Association Band of Providence. 

The First Light Infantry Veteran Association of Providence, R. I., 

organized in 1818, Major-General W. W. Brown commanding. 

The Veteran Seventh Regiment Band, New York. 

The Veteran National Guard, 7th Regiment, State of New York, 

Colonel Marshall Lefferts commanding. 

The Manchester (N. H.) Cornet Band. 

The Amoskeag Veterans, of Manchester, N. H., Major George C. 

Gilmore commanding. 

The Putnam Phalanx Drum Corps. 

The Putnam Phalanx, of Hartford, Connecticut, Major Henry 

Kennedy commanding. 



64 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Downing's Ninth Regiment Band, of New York. 
The Old Guard, of New York, Major G-. W. McLean commanding, 

Accompanied by 
Bvt. Brigadier General Washington Hadley, J. T. Howe, Esq., Major 

J. W. Hazlet, and C. D. Fredericks, Esq. 

The Washington Light Infantry, of Charleston, S. C, Major R. C. 

Gilchrist, First Lieutenant, commanding, 

Accompanied by 

Col. Thomas Y. Simons, Col. A. O. Andrews, J. Lawrence 

Honour, Esq. 
The Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, of Norfolk, Va., four guns, Cap- 
tain James W. Gilmer commanding. 
Carriages containing, as guests of the Blues, Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee, who 
commanded a division of Confederate cavalry during the late war ; 
Col. Walter H. Taylor, who was Adjutant General to Gen. 
Robert E. Lee ; Col. Stark, who commanded Norfolk 
troops ; Capt. E. B. White, who was of the Con- 
federate Navy ; Mr. M. Glennan of the 
Norfolk Virginian; and C. E. Perkins of 
the Norfolk Landmark. 
Drum Corps. 
Old Columbians, organized in 1792, Capt. Michael Doherty 

commanding. 

Amesbury Veteran Artillery Association Band. 

The Amesbury and Salisbury Veteran Association, Capt. Newell Boyd 

commanding. 

Decorated carriage, containing twelve old sailors, and also a piece 

of ordnance cast in 1736, and taken from Fort Point channel. 



FIFTH DIVISION. 

Chief of Division, Gen. J. Cushing Edmands. 

AIDS. 

Col. Edward B. Blasland, Assistant Adjutant General ; Capt. T. R. 

Matthews, Gen. E. Blakeslee, Lieut. Wm. H. Bird, 

Lieut. CM. Haley. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 65 

American Band of Boston. 
Lexington Minute Men, Acting Major, E. L. Zalinski, U. S. A. 
Boston School Regiment Drum Corps. 
Boston School Regiment, Colonel William B. Lawrence commanding. 
The Latin School Battalion, Major Edward Robinson commanding. 
First Battalion English High School, Major E. C. Wilde commanding. 
Second Battalion, English High School, Major George Nickerson 

commanding. 

The Highland Battalion, Major A. L. Jacobs commanding. 

Drum Corps. 

The Cambridge Cadets, of East Cambridge, Capt. E. A. Cooney 

commanding. 

Drum Corps. 

The Chelmsford Minute Men, of Chelmsford, Mass. 

The Boston Caledonian Club, John Stark, Chief. 

The Thorndike Horse Guards, of Beverly, Captain Hugh Hill 

commanding. 
The Magoun Battery, of Medford, Captain Charles Russell 

commanding. 
The Franco-Belgian Benevolent Society, in barouches, with American, 
French and Belgian colors. 
The Boston Highland Benevolent Association, in a barge. 



SIXTH DIVISION. 
Chief of Division, Charles B. Fox. 

AIDS. 

Col. Francis S. Hesseltine, Major Cyrus S. Haldeman, Major Frank 

Goodwin, Lieutenants Henry D. Pope, and Wm. Chickering. 

Charles Russell Lowell Post No. 7, G. A. R., of Boston, Thomas M. 

Kenney, commander. 

Berry's Band of Lowell. 

Benjamin F. Butler Post No. 42, of Lowell, G. W. Huntoon, 

commander. 



(36 CEXTEXXIAE AXXTVEESAEY OF THE 

Stoneham Brass Band. 
Radiant Star Council No. 5, Order of United American Mechanics of 

South Boston. Commander Edward Isaacs. 

Delegates from Bay State Council No. 1. of Boston ; Bunker Hill 

Council No. 2. of Charlestown : High Bock Council Xo. 6, of 

Lynn : Harvard Council Xo. 9. of Cambridge : Israel Putnam 
Council Xo. 10. of Boston : Niagara Council No. 11. of 
Salem : Warren Council Xo. 13. of Lynn : Abraham 
Lincoln Council Xo. II. of Soinerville ; Saga- 
more Council Xo. 15, of Saugus : Roxbmy 
Council Xo. 17. of Boston Highlands ; 
all members of the 0. U. A. M. 
organization. 
Delegates from the Junior Order L^nited American Mechanics of 

Massachusetts. 

Representatives of the Xational and Massachusetts State Councils, 

0. U. A. M., in barouches. 

Bond's Brass Band, of Boston. 

Ivanhoe Lodge. Knights of Pythias Xo. 13. of Charlestown, 

T. TT. Paine, commander. 
Delegates from "Washington Lodge Xo. 10, of South Boston : Common- 
wealth Lodge Xo. 19, of Boston : King Solomon Lodge Xo. 18, 
of Boston; Socrates Lodge Xo. 21, of South Boston ; Old 
Colony Lodge Xo. 13, of Abington ; Mattapan Lodge 
Xo. 41, of Dorchester ; all Knights of Pythias. 
American Brass Band of Suncook, X. H. 
Oriental Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of Suncook, X. H., 
H. D. TTood, commander. 
Johnson's Dram Corps. 
Colored Veteran Association, Major Burt Smith commanding. 
Delegates from the Colored Veteran Association of Xorfolk, Va., 
accompanied by Inspector General J. Mullen, of the Grand Army 
Order of Virginia, and Xorth and South Carolina. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 67 



SEVENTH DIVISION. 

John T. Bauirick, Chief of Division. 

AIDS. 

Edwai'd Rile j, Assistant Adjutant General ; Patrick O'Riorden, 

Dennis Crowley, James H. Lombard, Timothy C. Mahoney, 

Daniel Heffernan. 

This division was composed of Catholic Benevolent Societies, as 

follows : — 

O'Connor's mounted Band. 

Knights of St. Patrick, composed of two mounted companies, one 

from Boston, Capt. Lyons commanding ; 

Another from Lawrence, Mass., Timothy Dacey commanding. 

Company A, of the Legion of St. Patrick, Gen. J. H. Henchon 

commanding. 

The United Association of American Hibernians of South Boston, 

John McCaffrey, Chief Marshal. 

Union Brass Band of Lynn. 

St. Joseph Cadets, Captain J. F. Lynch commanding. 

St. Joseph Drum Corps. 

Ancient Order of Hibernians in several divisions, namely : — 

Division No. 1, of Boston, Lawrence Donovan commanding. 

Belknap Brass Band, of Quincy. 

Division No. 2, of East Boston, John C. McDevitt commanding. 

Division No. 3, of Jamaica Plain, D. J. Cuiiey commanding. 

Brookline Band. 

Division No. 4, of Boston, J. J. Leevens commanding. 

Brookline Hibernian Band. 

Division No. 5, of Salem, Timothy Folej' commanding. 

Lynn Cornet Band. 

Division No. 8, Jamaica Plain, James McMorrow commanding. 

Delegation of the American Societv of Hibernians in a barouche. 



68 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 



EIGHTH DIVISION. 

John O'Brien, Chief- of Division. 

AIDS. 

Lawrence P. Furlong, Assistant Adjutant General ; Patrick Coyle, J. 

H. O'Neil, A. J. Phillip, L. C. Dugan ; Orderly, John Calanan. 

Hibernia Brass Band, Natick. 

Fulton Cadets, Capt. J. J. Barry commanding. 

St. Valentine Cadets, two companies, Major Thomas Kelley 

commanding. 

St. Valentine Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, T. H. Good. 

Cathedral Cadets, Captain M. Mahoney commanding. 

Drum Corps. 

Father Mathew Cadets, Maiden, Captain D. J. Murphy 

commanding. 

~Lojola Temperance Cadets, Melrose, Captain James C. Campbell 

commanding. 

Highland Drum Corps. 

Cathedral Temperance Society, Marshal, J. J. Nolan. 

St. Joseph Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, Jeremiah Sheehy. 

Father Mathew Drum Corps. 

Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society, Lynn, 

Marshal, Joseph Murphy. 

South Boston Division, Total Abstinence Society, 

Marshal, E. J. Flaherty. 

Drum Corps. 

Gate of Heaven Cadets, Colonel E. Haynes commanding. 

Drum Corps. 

St. Vincent's Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, D. Fahey. 

Saxonville Brass Band, with Drum Corps. 

Saints Peter and Paul Total Abstinence Society, 

Marshal, William Ward. 

Drum Corps. 

St. Augustine Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, Michael Creed. 

South Boston Young Men's Total Abstinence. Society, 

Marshal, C. J. Ford. 



BATTLE OF BTOfKER HILL. 69 

St. James Temperance Drum Corps. 

St. James Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, James Cotter. 

Dram Corps. 

St. James Young Men's Total Abstinence Society, 

Marshal, L. J. Crowley. 

Drum Corps. 

Saint Eose Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society, Chelsea, 

Marshal, Daniel McGivern. 

Saint Eose Cadets, Chelsea, Captain fm. Evans commanding. 

St. Stephen Drum Corps. 

Saint Stephen "Guard of Honor" Cadets, Major J. H. Flaherty 

commanding. 

Independent Band, East Boston. 

St. Stephens Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, John H. Eohen. 

East Boston Total Abstinence Society, Marshal, P. J. Flanagan. 



NINTH DIVISION. 

Levi L. Willcutt, Esq., Chief of Division. 

AIDS. 

Major Charles B. Whittemore, Assistant Adjutant General ; Captain 

Fred E. Shattuck, Mr. Nelson V. Titus, Mr. Charles F. Curtis, 

Mr. Francis H. Willcutt, Mr. Benjamin W. Parker, Mr. 

George L. Damon, Mr. William B. Pearce, Mr. 

Charles M. Dunlap, Mr. Alfred S. Taylor. 

This division was composed of representations from the merchants, 
mechanics and manufacturers of Boston. Although the proposition 
to make such a display was not acted upon until a few days before 
the celebration was to take place, it was then entered into with such 
enthusiasm as to produce the most gratifying result. The extent and 
variety of the exhibition has never been equalled in this country. 
There were two hundred and thirty-three business houses and manu- 
factories represented by four hundred and twenty-one teams, fifteen 
hundred and eighty-seven harnessed horses, and twelve hundred 



70 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

men. Most of the teams were handsomery decorated, and many of 
them bore inscriptions of a patriotic or humorous character. The 
wagons were loaded with the articles sold or produced by the exhibit- 
ors, and in some cases with workmen who appeared in the exercise 
of their vocation. 

The finest exhibitions were made by the furniture-dealers, piano and 
organ manufacturers, glass-blowers, leather-dealers, grocers, brewers, 
bakers, and florists. The brewers appeared with fifty wagons and one 
hundred and eight horses ; the furniture-dealers with thirty-six wagons 
and eighty-six horses ; the piano and organ manufacturers with 
twenty-eight wagons and ninety horses — one firm alone having 
twelve four-horse teams ; and the leather-dealers with nineteen wagons 
and fifty-two horses. The furniture-dealers and the bakers were 
preceded by bands of music. 

This division closed the procession. Throughout the route 
the sidewalks and fronts of buildings were crowded with 
spectators. In many places where there were vacant lots, 
platforms or tiers of seats had been erected and were let at 
high prices. From an official return obtained from the several 
steam railway companies whose cars enter the city, it appears 
that the number of persons brought into the city in that way 
during the day was one hundred and forty thousand. If we 
add to this the number of persons who arrived previous to that 
day, and the number of our own citizens who were called out 
by the display, it is evident that the procession was witnessed 
by not less than five hundred thousand people. The chief 
officers of the City and State, and their distinguished guests, 
were greeted with cheers and shouts of welcome as they passed 
along the crowded streets. 

The scene on Columbus avenue, as the long column of troops 
passed up from Dartmouth street, was especially grand and im- 
posing. The houses were all richly decorated with flags, ban- 
ners, shields, pictures and mottoes. At the head of the ave- 
nue, where the procession turned into Chester park, a large 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HELL. 71 

ornamented stand had been erected, with seats rising one above 
another to a great height. The upper seats were occupied 
entirely by school children, who waved miniature flags as the 
troops passed along, keeping time in their motions with the 
music of the bands. 

The time occupied by the procession in passing a given point 
(all delays being deducted) was three hours and fifty minutes. 



SERVICES ON BUNKER HILL. 




BUNKER HILL. 

[Drawn by EDWIN A. ABBEY. Engraved by A. V. S. ANTHONY/ 



SERVICES ON BUNKER HILL. 



The services on Bunker Hill were held in a large pavilion, 
erected on the southerly side of the Monument grounds. The 
civic portion of the procession reached the hill about a quarter 
before six o'clock, and the seats in the pavilion were soon 
filled. The platform, which faced the Monument, was occu- 
pied by the distinguished guests of the Monument Association, 
the City, and the State. 

At six o'clock Colonel Henry Walker, Chief Marshal of 
the Association, called the company to order, and said : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I have the pleasure of 
introducing to you Hon. George Washington Warren 
as President of the Bunker Hill Monument Association 
and as President of the Day. 

The announcement was received with applause ; and Judge 
Warren, advancing to the front of the platform, said : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — With devout thankful- 
ness for the auspicious manner in which this day has 
been observed, let us look up to the Supreme Being 
for His blessing. 



76 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

Rev. Eurus Ellis, D. D., pastor of the First Church of 
Boston, then offered the following prayer : — 



PRAYER BY REV. RUEUS ELLIS, D. D. 

God of all power and grace, as we gather about 
our pillar of remembrance, let it be into Thy holy 
presence. We adore the wonder of Thy providence 
and that faithfulness which is unto all generations. 
On this day of high and holy memories we praise 
Thee, the God of our fathers, the hope of their hearts 
in their day of trial. Thou didst lead them through 
the cloud and through the sea, and gave unto them 
their portion amongst the nations; and in all these 
years Thou hast watched over us, and hast led us 
safely through our days of darkness, and made us one 
nation before Thee. As we gather from the East and 
from the West, from the ISTorth and from the South, to 
the battle-field of our nation, let it be into a fellowship 
of love and service. Make the word which shall be 
spoken to us this day Thy word, that every blessed 
faith, hope and charity may be deepened in our hearts 
and our land brought nearer to the kingdom of Thy 
dear Son. Under the heavens which He hath opened, 
and in the spirit which He hath given, and in the words 
which He hath taught, let us all say unto Thee, " Our 
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. 
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is 
done in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and 
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who tres- 
pass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 77 

deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." 

At the conclusion of the prayer, the Apollo Club, under 
the direction of Mr. B. J. Lang, sang the following hymn, 
entitled " Prayer Before the Battle." 

Hear us, Almighty One ! 
Hear us, all holy One ! 

Lord of the battle before us ! 
Father, all praise to Thee, 
Father, all thanks to Thee, 

That Freedom's banner is o'er us ! 

Like a consuming brand, 
Stretch forth Thy mighty hand, 

Wrong and oppression destroying. 
Help us, O Lord of right ! 
Help us, O God of might ! 

Help us, where war-tides are flowing. 

Help us, though we may fall ; 
From out the grave we call ; 

Praise to Thy name, and forever. 
All power and glory be 
Thine through eternity ! 

Help us, Almighty One ! Amen. 

Judge Warren then said : It is with extreme pleas- 
ure that I have the honor to present to you our 
esteemed associate, the soldier, the scholar, and the 
jurist, Charles Devens, Jr. 

General Devens was received with hearty applause. After 
acknowledging the greeting of the audience he proceeded to 
deliver the following address : — 



78 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 
ADDRESS OE GENERAL DEVENS. 

Felloiv- Citizens : — In pious and patriotic commem- 
oration of the great deed which one hundred years 
ago was done on this immortal field; in deep thankful- 
ness for the blessings which have been showered upon 
us as a people with so lavish a hand; in the earnest hope 
that the liberty, guarded and sustained by the sanctions 
of law, which the valor of our fathers won for us, and 
which we hold to-day in solemn trust, may be trans- 
mitted to endless generations, — we have gathered in 
this countless throng, representing in its assemblage 
every portion of our common country. 

A welcome, cordial, generous, and heartfelt, to each 
and all ! 

Welcome to the sons of ]STew England, and their de- 
scendants, no matter where their homes may be! They 
stand upon the soil made sacred now and forever by 
the blood of their fathers. Among them we recognize 
with peculiar pleasure and satisfaction those allied by 
family ties to the great leaders of the day, — to Prescott, 
Putnam, or Warren, to Stark, Knowlton, or Pomeroy, 
— and equally those in whose veins flows the kindred 
blood of any of the brave men who stood together in 
the battle line. 

Insignificant as the conflict seems to us now in regard 
to the numbers engaged, unimportant as it was then so 
far as results purely military and strategical were con- 
cerned, the valor and patriotism here exhibited, the time 
when and the opportunity on which they were thus dis- 
played, have justly caused it to be ranked among the 
decisive battles of the world. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 79 

Welcome to the citizens of every State, alike from 
those which represent the thirteen Colonies, and from 
the younger States of the Union! We thank them all, 
whether they come from the great Middle States, which 
bind us together, from the West, or from the South, for 
the pilgrimage they have made hither in generous ap- 
preciation of the great step that was taken here upon 
the jagged and thorny path on which we were com- 
pelled to walk in our journey toward independence. 
Fought although th^s battle was by the men of the 
colonies of New England, they did not stand for them- 
selves alone, but that there might be founded a struct- 
ure imperishable as any that man can rear in a free and 
united government. The corner-stone of the edifice they 
laid was for all the colonies that were, all the States that 
are, all the States that are yet to be. 

Welcome to the Yice-President of the United States, 
the Justices of its Supreme Court, and the General 
commanding its armies! They represent to us the 
government which was the result of the Revolution. 
In 1775 Massachusetts was the most populous but one 
or perhaps two of the colonies, and by the unity of her 
people the most powerful and warlike of any. She has 
seen, notwithstanding her own vast increase in popu- 
lation and wealth, although a great State has since been 
taken from what were then her borders, her relative 
position change ; but she has seen with admiration and 
not with envy, with pride and satisfaction and not with 
mean jealousy, the growth of States broader, richer, and 
fairer than she can hope to be. Whatever changes may 
have come, her spirit has not changed, her voice has not 
altered. Then singled out from the colonies to be first 



80 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

subdued and punished, as she lifted her head in stern 
defence of her ancient liberty, in proud defiance of those 
who would oppress her, demanding her own great right 
of local self-government, she called upon her sister colo- 
nies for a union that should secure and maintain the 
rights of all; so to-day she demands for all others every 
right which she asks for herself, and she calls upon all 
for that cordial and generous obedience which she is 
ready to render to the Constitution which has united 
them forever. 

It was to be expected, as the controversy between 
Great Britain and her colonies moved on from the pro- 
posed passage of the Stamp Act, in 176-4, and as its 
inevitable tendency developed, that its weight should be 
thrown in the first instance upon Kew England and her 
chief town and colony. The colonies differed in some 
important respects in the manner in which they had 
been settled and in the character of their people. To 
some there was nothing distasteful in a monarchial 
government as such, if it had been Wisely and liberally 
administered; but New England remembered always the 
race from which she sprung, and why her fathers had 
crossed the sea. Others had come from a love of ad- 
venture, from the hope of wealth, from a desire to test 
the fortunes of a new world; but for none of these things 
had her founders left the pleasant fields and loved homes 
of their native land; and the unquenchable love of lib- 
erty which animated them lived still in the bosoms of 
their descendants. ]N~or was her stern religious faith 
averse to the assertion by force of what she deemed her 
liberties. In Parliament, the spirit that prevailed at 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 81 

the time of the accession of George III. was different 
from that ardent zeal for constitutional freedom which 
had resulted in the dethronement of James II. ; but New 
England understood her rights, and was prompt to 
maintain them always in the spirit of the English Com- 
monwealth. " In what book," said one to Selden, " do 
you find the authority to resist tyranny by force? " and 
the great lawyer of that day answered, "It is the 
custom of England, and the custom of England is the 
law of the land." 

It was not the right to tax without representation 
merely: it was the claim, necessarily involved in such a 
right, to govern in a different manner, and through offi- 
cials appointed by the British crown, that astonished the 
colonies, and united all at first in remonstrance and after- 
ward in determined resistance. Her own character and 
the circumstances of her situation had placed Massa- 
chusetts in the van of this conflict, and had caused her, 
when the policy of coercion was finally resolved on, to 
be dealt with by a system of legislation unprecedented 
in the method usually adopted by Britain in governing 
her colonies. It was industriously circulated in Par- 
liament that she would not be sustained by the others 
in the resolute attitude which she had assumed; and 
upon her were rained in rapid succession the statutes 
known by the popular names of the Boston Port Bill, 
the Regulating Act, the Enforcing Act, which were in- 
tended to reduce her chief town, the most important in 
North America, to beggary; which abrogated the pro- 
visions of her charter, and took from the people the 

appointment of their judges, sheriffs, and chief officers; 
11 



82 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

which forbade the town meetings, whose spirit had 
been too bold and resolute to be pleasant; which denied 
to her citizens in many cases the trial by jury, and 
permitted them to be transported to England or other 
colonies for trial: a system which, if it could have 
been enforced, would have reduced her inhabitants 
to political servitude. Sustained by her own daring 
spirit, and by the generous encouragement of her 
sister colonies, she had resisted; and the ten months 
that had preceded Lexington and Concord had been 
practically those of war, although blows had not been 
struck, and blood had not been shed. In the speech 
of Mr. Burke, delivered March, 1775, upon conciliation 
with America, memorable not so much for its splendid 
eloquence (although it is among the masterpieces of 
the English language) as for its generous statesman- 
ship, he describes Massachusetts, the utter failure of 
the attempt to reduce her either to submission or 
anarchy, and her preservation of order even while she 
rejected the authority of the governor and judges 
appointed by the British crown. He closes by saying, 
" How long it will continue in this state, or what may 
come out of this unheard-of situation, how can the 
wisest of us conjecture ? " 

Obviously no such condition of things could endure; 
and, before his words could cross the Atlantic, the ques- 
tion that he asked had been answered by the appeal to 
arms. The hoof-beats of Paul Revere's horse along 
the Lexington road had announced, as the yeomanry of 
Middlesex, Essex, and Worcester sprang to arms to 
meet the movement of the British, on the evening of 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 83 

April 18, from Boston, that the lull was over, and that 
the storm had come in all its majesty. 

The day that followed had changed the relation of 
the contending parties forever; but the battle of Bunker 
Hill is also one of the definite steps which mark the 
progress of the American Revolution. It was not the 
resistance only of those who will not submit to be 
oppressed, — it was the result of a distinctly aggressive 
movement on the part of those who claim the right to 
levy and maintain armies; nor can I better discharge 
the duty which has fallen on me, by the deeply regretted 
absence of the distinguished scholar and orator* who 
it was hoped would have addressed you, than by recall- 
ing its events, even if to some extent I shall seem to 
trespass upon the domain of the historian or the an- 
nalist. The deeds of brave men are their true eulogy; 
and from a calm contemplation of them we may draw 
an inspiration and encouragement greater than could be 
derived from labored argument or carefully studied 
reflection. 

Lexington and Concord had been immediately fol- 
lowed by the gathering of the militia of New England 
for the siege of Boston, where Gage, now reinforced by 
Clinton, was compelled to rest, sheltered by the cannon 
of the ships of war, in command of the garrison of a 
beleaguered town. The force by which he was thus 
surrounded was an irregular one, sprung from the ardor 
and enthusiasm of the people, which far exceeded the 
means in their power; nor had it any distinctly recog- 
nized commander; for while a precedence was accorded 

* Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. 



84 CENTENNIAL ANNIYEESARY OE THE 

to General Ward, on account of his seniority, and 
because more than two-thirds of those assembled were 
Massachusetts men, as no colony could claim authority 
over another, it was an army of allies, the troops of each 
colony being commanded by its own officers, while all 
the general officers formed a council of war. 

The occupation of Bunker Hill was resolved on at 
the suggestion of the Committee of Safety of Massachu- 
setts, made with knowledge that General Gage was 
about to take possession of the heights of Dorchester; 
and on the evening of the 16th of June the force des- 
tined for this formidable movement assembled upon the 
Common at Cambridge. It consisted of some seven or 
eight hundred men, drawn from the regiments of Pres- 
cbtt, Frye, and Bridge, and some two hundred men of 
Connecticut, from the regiment of Putnam, under Cap- 
tain Thomas Knowlton; the whole under the command 
of Colonel William Prescott. As they formed for their 
march, Langdon, the President of Harvard College, 
came from his study, and implored the blessing of God 
upon their then unknown and dangerous expedition. 

So always may the voice of this great institution of 
learning, which, among their earliest acts and in their 
day of weakness, our fathers dedicated to the cause of 
sound learning, seem to be uplifted in solemn invoca- 
tion above their sons in every struggle, whether in the 
forum or the field, for progress, for liberty, and for the 
rights of man! From her halls, then converted into 
barracks, had come forth the men who, within the 
thirty-five years that had preceded, had more largely 
than any others controlled and conducted the great 



BATTLE OF BMEEE HILL. 85 

debate between England and her colonies, which, be- 
ginning distinctly in 1764 by the proposed passage of 
the Stamp Act, was now to be settled by the arbitra- 
ment of arms. In 1740 had graduated Samuel Adams, 
and in his thesis for the Master's degree had main- 
tained the proposition which was the foundation of the 
Revolution, that it was lawful to resist the supreme 
magistrate, if the Commonwealth could not otherwise 
be preserved. He had been followed, among others 
hardly less distinguished, by James Otis, by Cooper and 
Bowdoin, Hancock and John Adams, by Warren and 
Quincy. Differing in ages and occupations, in personal 
qualities and mental characteristics, this remarkable 
group had been drawn together by a common enthu- 
siasm. To their work they had brought every energy 
of mind and heart; and they had so managed their share 
of the controversy, in which all the leading statesmen of 
Britain had participated, as to have commanded the 
respect of their opponents, while they inspired and con- 
vinced their own countrymen. Many lived to see their 
hopes fulfilled, yet not all. Already Quincy, the young- 
est of this illustrious circle, had passed away, appealing 
with his dying words to his countrymen to be prepared 
" to seal their faith and constancy to their liberties with 
their blood." Already the gloomy shadow of mental 
darkness had obscured forever the splendid powers of 
Otis ; and the hour of Warren was nearly come. 

It was nine o'clock in the evening, as the detach- 
ments, with Prescott at their head, moved from Cam- 
bridge. On arriving at Charlestown, a consultation 
was held, in which it is believed that Putnam, and 



86 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

perhaps Pomeroy, joined; and it was determined to 
fortify Breed's Hill, — not then known by the distinctive 
name it has since borne. Connected with Blinker Hill 
by a high ridge, these two eminences might not im- 
properly be considered as peaks of the same hill; and, 
for the purpose of annoyance to the British at Boston, 
Breed's Hill was better adapted. Together they 
traverse a large portion of the peninsula of Charles- 
town, which, connected to the main land by a narrow 
neck, and, broadening as it approaches Boston, is 
washed on the northern side by the Mystic, and on the 
eastern and southern by the Charles river. As the 
line of retreat to the Neck, which was the only ap- 
proach, was long, Breed's Hill could not be safely held, 
however, without fortifying Bunker Hill also. 

At midnight work on the redoubt began; and at 
dawn the entrenchments, as they were discovered by 
the British fleet in Charles river, which opened upon 
them at once, were about six feet high. Well sheltered 
within them, the men, under a terrific cannonade from 
the ships and floating batteries, aided by a battery on 
Copp's Hill opposite, continued to labor at the works 
until about eleven o'clock, when they were substantially 
finished. At about this time General Putnam reached 
the field, and recommended that the intrenching tools 
be sent to Bunker Hill, where he directed the throwing 
up of a breastwork, which, in the confusion of the day, 
was never completed. 

Oppressed by their severe labor, the terrific heat, and 
their want of water and provisions, some urged upon 
Prescott that he should send to General Ward that they 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 87 

might be relieved; but this he resolutely refused, saying 
that the men who had raised the works were best able 
to defend them. At Cambridge, however, much anx- 
iety prevailed; and General Ward, who was of opinion 
that General Gage must attack at once, and would 
make his principal attack at Cambridge, was unwilling 
to weaken the main army until his intentions should be 
developed; but, yielding partially to the energetic re- 
monstrances of the Committee of Safety, through Mr. 
Richard Devens, consented to order to Charlestown the 
regiments of Stark and Read, which were under his 
control. 

The consultation at Boston, begun at the announce- 
ment made by the cannonade from the British ship, was 
spirited and long. It was the opinion of Sir Henry 
Clinton that troops should be landed at the Neck, and 
the evidently small force upon the hill, then taken in 
reverse, would easily be captured. But this plan had 
been rejected by General Gage, as the force thus 
landed might be placed between two forces of the 
enemy, in violation of the military axiom that troops 
should be compelled to deal only with an enemy in 
front. While the rule is sound, its application in this 
case might well be doubted, as, by concentrating the 
fire of the British ships and batteries, it would have 
been impossible that any organized force could have 
crossed the ]N"eck, had the British forces landed near 
this point, and thus imprisoned the Americans in the 
peninsula. 

To attack the works in front, to carry them by main 
force, to show how little able the rabble that manned 



88 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

them was to compete with the troops of the king, 
and to administer a stern rebuke that should punish 
severely those actually in arms, and admonish those 
whose loyalty was wavering, was more in accordance 
with the spirit that prevailed in the British army. Its 
officers were smarting under the disgraceful retreat 
from Lexington and Concord, and would not yet 
believe that they had before them foemen worthy of 
their steel. 

It was soon after twelve o'clock when the troops 
commenced their movements from the North Battery 
and Long Wharf of Boston, landing at about one 
o'clock, without molestation, at the extreme point of the 
peninsula, known as Moulton's Point. On arriving, 
Major-General Howe, by whom they were commanded, 
finding the work more formidable than he had antici- 
pated, determined to send for reinforcements. This 
delay was unwise; for the interval, although it brought 
him additional troops, proved of far more advantage 
to the Americans. 

"When the news of the actual landing arrived at 
Cambridge, a considerable body of Massachusetts 
troops was ordered toward Charlestown, while General 
Putnam ordered forward those of Connecticut. Of all 
these, however, comparatively few reached the line 
before the action was decided. Many never reached 
Charlestown at all; others delayed at Prospect Hill, 
appalled at the tremendous fire with which the British 
swept the Neck; while others came no further than 
Bunker Hill. 

It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon when, 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 89 

reinforcements having arrived, all was ready in the 
British line for the attack; and it is time to consider 
the character of the defences erected, and their position, 
as well as the forces by which they were then manned. 
The redoubt, which would inclose the spot where the 
Monument now stands, was upon the crest of Breed's 
Hill, an eminence about seventy feet in height. It was 
about eight rods square, with its front toward the south, 
overlooking the town and Charles river. Its south- 
eastern angle directly faced Copp's Hill, while its 
eastern side fronted extensive fields which lay between 
it and Moulton's Point; Moulton Hill, then about thirty 
feet in height, but now levelled with the surface of the 
ground, was situated between it and Moulton's Point. 
The eastern side of the redoubt was prolonged by a 
breastwork detached by a sally-port, which extended for 
about one hundred yards toward a marsh; while the 
northern side overlooked the Mystic river, from which 
it was distant about five hundred yards. 

For this work the conflict was now about to take 
place. It had, however, been strengthened upon the 
side toward the Mystic by a protection without which 
it would have been untenable; and this addition had 
been made while General Howe was waiting for 
reinforcements, by the forethought of Prescott, the 
skilful conduct of Knowlton, and the fortunate 
arrival of Stark. Immediately upon the first landing, 
observing an intention on the part of the British 
General of moving along the Mystic, and thus attempt- 
ing to outflank the Americans, Prescott had directed 
Knowlton, with the Connecticut detachment and with 

12 



90 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

two field-pieces, to oppose them. Captain Knowlton, 
with his men, who, it will be remembered, were of 
the original command of Prescott, moved about six 
hundred feet to the rear of the redoubt upon the side 
toward the Mystic, and took a position there near the 
base of Bunker Hill, properly so called, finding a fence 
which extended toward the Mystic, the foundation of 
which was of stone, and upon it two rails. Rapidly 
making, with the materials he found, another fence a 
few feet distant, he filled the interval with grass from 
the fields which the mower of yesterday had passed 
over, but upon which the " great reaper " was to gather 
to-day a rich harvest. While thus engaged, Stark (a 
part of whose men were detained at Bunker Hill by 
Putnam on his proposed works there) , followed closely 
by Read, arrived, and, perceiving instantly the im- 
portance of this position for the defence of the 
intrenchments, — for the way, as he says, for the 
enemy was " so plain he could not miss it," — extended 
the line of Knowlton by rails and stones taken from 
adjoining fences until it reached the river, making 
on the extreme left on the beach a strong stone wall. 
As the rail-fence was so far to the rear of the redoubt, 
there was of course an interval which some slight 
attempt had been made to close, and where also was 
posted the artillery of the Americans, which, however, 
insufficient of itself and feebly served, was of little 
importance during the action. 

In the mean time, few although the reinforcements 
were, there had now arrived some fresh men to inspire 
with confidence those who had toiled with Prescott 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 91 

through the weary night and exhausting day without 
food, drink, or rest. Just before the battle actually 
commenced, detachments from the Massachusetts regi- 
ments of Brewer, Nixon, "Woodbridge, Little, and 
Major Moore, reached the field. Most of these take 
their place at the breastwork on the left of the eastern 
front of the redoubt, and a similar breastwork more 
hastily made by using a cart-way upon the right. 

Upon the extreme right were posted a few troops, 
extending toward the base of the hill, while two flank- 
ing parties were thrown out by Prescott to harass the 
enemy. 

A portion of the Massachusetts troops who arrive 
endeavor to fill the gap which exists between the breast- 
work and the rail-fence, while yet a few take their stand 
at the rail-fence. Notably among these latter is the 
veteran General Pomeroy, of Northampton, too old, as 
he thinks a few days later, when he is chosen a brigadier 
by the Continental Congress, to accept so responsible a 
trust, yet not so old that he cannot fight yet in the 
ranks, although the weight of seventy years is upon 
him. Later in the day, when his musket is shattered by 
a shot, he waves the broken stock in his strong right 
hand as he directs the men, — a leader's truncheon that 
tells its own story of the bravery by which it was won. 
All know the brave old man; and as, declining any 
command, he takes his place as a volunteer, he is 
greeted with hearty cheers. To the redoubt has now 
come Warren, in that spirit of a true soldier, who, 
having advised against a plan which has been adopted, 
feels the more called upon to make every effort that 



92 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

it shall succeed. The enthusiasm with which he is 
received indicates at once the inspiration and encourage- 
ment that the men all feel in that gallant presence; but 
when Prescott offers him the command, he having three 
days before been appointed a major-general by the 
Provincial Congress, he declines it, saying, "I come as 
a volunteer to serve under you, and shall be happy to 
learn from a soldier of your experience." 

The peninsula where the struggle was to take place 
was in full view across the calm waters of the harbor, 
and of the Charles and Mystic rivers, whose banks were 
lined with people, who with mournful and anxious hearts 
awaited the issue, while each house-top in the town was 
covered with eager spectators. From Copp's Hill, 
General Gage, with Burgoyne and Clinton, surrounded 
by troops, ready themselves to move at an instant's 
warning, watches the onset of his forces. 

The champions are not unworthy of the arena in 
which they stand. To those who love the " pomp and 
circumstance" of war, the British troops present a 
splendid array. The brilliant light flashes back from the 
scarlet uniforms, the showy equipments, and the glitter- 
ing arms ; and, as they move, there is seen the effect of 
that discipline whose object is to put at the disposal of 
the one who commands the strength and courage of 
the thousands whom he leads. They are of the best 
and most tried troops of the British army; and some of 
the regiments have won distinguished honor on the 
battle-fields of Europe, in the same wars in which the 
colonies had poured out their blood on this side of the 
Atlantic in hearty and generous support of the British 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 93 

crown. Their veteran officers are men who have seen 
service in Europe and America; and their younger 
officers, like Lord Rawdon and Lord Harris, bear names 
afterwards distinguished in the chronicles of British 
warfare. The second in command is Brigadier-General 
Pigot, slight in person, but known as an officer of spirit 
and judgment; and their leader, Major-General Howe, 
bears a name which has been loved and honored in 
America. The monument which Massachusetts reared 
in Westminster Abbey to his elder brother, Lord Howe, 
who fell while leading a column of British and Ameri- 
cans at Ticonderoga in 1758, still stands to inscribe 
his name among the heroes of England, whose fame is 
guarded and enshrined within that ancient pile. Above 
their lines waves the great British ensign, to which the 
colonies have always looked as the emblem of their 
country, and with them is the w king's name," which 
even yet is a tower of strength in the land. As nearly 
as we can estimate, they number about four thousand 
men. General Gage's report indicates sufficiently that 
he does not intend to state the number engaged when 
he is compelled, later, to acknowledge the casualties of 
the day. 

Upon the other side a different scene presents itself. 
As the battle is about to open, at the redoubt and upon 
its flanks are the troops of Massachusetts ; at the rail- 
fence are the troops of Connecticut and those of New 
Hampshire, with a few men of Massachusetts. How 
many there were in all cannot be determined with ac- 
curacy. Regiments that are frequently spoken of as 
being present at the engagement were represented by 



V 



94 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

but weak detachments. Towards the close of the battle 
a few more arrive, but not more than enough to make 
the place good of the losses that have in the mean time 
occurred. ~No judgment can be formed more accurate 
than that of Washington, who was so soon after with 
the army, when many of the circumstances were inves- 
tigated, and whose mature and carefully considered 
opinion was, that at no time upon our side were more 
than fifteen hundred men actually engaged. 

As we look down the line, there are symptoms 
everywhere of determination; for such has been the 
confusion, and so little has been the command which, in 
their movements, the officers have been able to exercise, 
that no man is there who does not mean to be there. 
A few free colored men are in the ranks, who do good 
service; but it is a gathering almost exclusively of the 
yeomanry of New England, men of the English race 
and blood, who stand there that day because there has 
been an attempt to invade their rights as Englishmen, — 
rights guaranteed by their charters, and yet older than 
the Magna Charta itself. There are no uniforms to please 
the eye; but, as the cowl does not make the monk, so 
the uniform does not make the soldier, and in their rus- 
tic garb they will show themselves worthy of the name 
before the day is done. J$o flag waves above their 
heads; for they are this day without a country, and 
they fight that they may have one, although they could 
not have dreamed that the emblem of its sovereignty 
should float as it now does over millions of freemen 
from the Atlantic to the far Pacific. The equipments 
and arms are of all descriptions; but those who carry 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 95 

them know their use, and all, more or less skilled as 
marksmen, mean, in their stern economy of powder, 
which is their worst deficiency, that every shot shall 
tell. There is little discipline; but it is* not an unwar- 
like population, and among the men are scattered those 
who do not lo ok for the first time on the battle-field : 
and with all is that sense of individual responsibility and 
duty which to some extent takes its place, — that proud 
self-consciousness that animates those who know that 
their own right hands must work their own deliverance. 
Poorly officered in some respects, — for haste and bad 
management have put many important posts into ineffi- 
cient hands, — there are also with them officers who, 
from experience and ability, might be well counted as 
leaders on any field. They are New England men, 
fully understanding those they command, and exercising 
an influence, by force of their own characters, by their 
self-devotion and enthusiasm, which cause all around 
them to yield respectful and affectionate obedience. 

Roughly done, the works they have hastily made are 
yet formidable, the weakest part lying in the imper- 
fectly closed gap between the breastwork and the 
rail-fence. 

At the rail-fence, and on the extreme left, is Stark, 
distinguished afterwards by the battle of Bennington. 
He has shown the quick eye and ready hand of the 
practised soldier by the celerity with which he has 
extended this line to the Mystic river. Knowlton is 
there also, still with the Connecticut men, as yet but 
little reinforced, whose resolute conduct of this day 
deserves the same eulogy which it received from Wash- 



v/ 



96 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

ington, when, a year later, he fell gloriously fighting 
on Harlem Heights at the head of his regiment, 
— that "it would have been an honor to any coun- 
try." General Putnam, an officer of tried courage 
and of energetic character, has come* to share in the 
danger of the assault, now that it is evidently approach- 
ing, and is everywhere along this portion of the line, 
inspiring, encouraging, and sustaining the men. All 
these, like Pomeroy, are veteran soldiers, who have 
served in the wars with France and her savage allies ; 
and it is a sundering of old ties to see the British 
flag up on the other side. 

At the redoubt, sustained by Warren, stands the 
commander of the expedition which has fortified 
Breed's Hill. He has himself served in the provincial 
forces of Massachusetts under the British flag, and 
that so bravely that he has been offered a commission 
in the regular army, but has preferred the life of a 
farmer and magistrate in Middlesex. His large and 
extensive influence he has given to the patriotic cause, 
and has been recognized from the first as one of those 
men qualified to command. Powerful in person, with 
an easy humor which has cheered and inspired with 
confidence all who are around him, he waits, with a 
calmness and courage that will not fail him in the 
most desperate moment, the issue. The hour that he 
has expected has come; and the gage of battle, so 
boldly thrown down by the erection of the redoubt, has 
been lifted. 

As the British army moved to the attack, it was 
in two wings; the first arranged directly to assail the 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 97 

redoubt, and led by Pigot; while the other, com- 
manded by General Howe in person, was divided into 
two distinct columns, one of which, composed of light 
infantry, was close to the bank of the river, and 
intended to turn the extreme left of our line, and 
with the column in front of the rail-fence to drive 
the Americans from their position, and cut off the 
retreat of those in the redoubt. 

In the opinion of General Burgoyne, General Howe's 
" arrangements were soldier-like and perfect ; " but the 
conduct of the battle does not, in a military point, 
deserve such high commendation. It was clearly an 
error on the part of General Howe to divide his forces, 
and make two points of attack instead of one; and an 
equal error to move up and deploy his columns to fire, 
in which his troops were at obvious disadvantage, from 
their want of protection, instead of making an assault 
without firing. He had failed also to recognize the 
weak point in the line between the breastwork and 
the rail-fence, easier to carry than any other point, and, 
if carried, more certain to involve the whole American 
force. He had sluggishly permitted the erection of the 
formidable field-work of the rail-fence, the whole of 
which had been constructed without any interference 
subsequent to his arrival on the peninsula; nor, when 
constructed, does it seem to have occurred to him 
that, by a floating battery or gunboat stationed in the 
Mystic river, both of which were within his control, it 
could have been enfiladed, and the force there dislodged 
at once. 

As the British are seen to advance, the orders are 

13 



98 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

renewed along the whole American line, in a hundred 
different forms, not to fire till the enemy are within 
ten or twelve rods, and then to wait for the word, to 
use their skill as marksmen, and to make every shot 
tell. For, although those at the entrenchments and 
rail-fence act without immediate concert, the scarcity 
of powder, and the fact that they are without bayonets 
and can rely only upon their bullets, is known to all. 
It had been intended to cover the movement of the 
British by a discharge of artillery; but the balls were, 
by some mistake of the ordnance officer, found too 
large for the guns, and afterward, when loaded with 
grape, it was found impossible to draw them through 
the miry ground, so that they afforded, in the first 
assault, no substantial assistance. 

The forces of Pigot moved slowly forward, impeded 
by the heavy knapsacks they had been encumbered 
with, and by the fences which divided the fields, and 
continued to fire as they thus advanced. As they got 
within gunshot, although their fire had done but little* 
damage, our men could not entirely restrain their 
impatience; but, as some fired, Prescott, sternly re- 
buking the disorder, appealed to their confidence in 
him, and some of his officers, springing upon the 
parapet, kicked up the gmis that rested upon it, that 
they might be sure to wait. This efficient remon- 
strance had its effect, and the enemy were within ten or 
twelve rods of the eastern front of the breastworks 
when the voice of Prescott uttered the words for which 
every ear was listening, and the stream of fire broke 
from his line which, by its terrible carnage, checked at 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 99 

once the advance. The attacking lines were old troops, 
and well led ; it was at once sternly returned, bnt they 
did not rush on, and in a few moments, wavering and 
staggering under a fire which was murderous, while 
their own did little execution, Pigot orders his men to 
fall back. 

In the mean time General Howe, after unsuccessfully 
endeavoring with a column of light infantry to turn the 
extreme left of our line on the Mystic, advanced with 
the grenadiers directly in front of the rail-fence, and 
somewhat annoyed by the artillery between the breast- 
work and the rail-fence, which here, directed by Put- 
nam, did its best service, as he approached within 
eighty or one hundred yards, deployed his forces into 
line. As at the redoubt, in eagerness, some of our men 
fired, when the officers threatened to cut down the first 
man who disobeyed, and, thus rebuked, they restrain 
themselves until the prescribed distance is reached, 
when their fire is delivered with such telling effect that, 
broken and disarranged, the attacking force, alike that 
directly in front and that upon the banks of the river, 
recoils before it, while many of the British officers have 
felt the deadly result of the superiority which the 
Americans possess as marksmen. 

Some minutes, perhaps fifteen, now intervene before 
the second assault, which are moments of enthusiastic 
joy in the American lines. All see that they are led by 
men capable of directing them, that they have rudely 
hurled back the first onset, and that they are not con- 
tending against those who are invincible. As they 
have seen their enemy turn, some of them at the rail- 



100 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

fence in their eagerness have sprung over it to pursue, 
but have been restrained by the wisdom of their officers. 
At the redoubt, Prescott, certain that the enemy will 
soon re-form and again attack, while he commends the 
men for their courage and congratulates them for their 
success, urges them to wait again for his order before 
they fire. Putnam hastens from the lines, his object being 
to forward r enforcements, and to arrange, if possible, a 
new line of defence at Bunker Hill, properly so called, 
where all was in confusion, the men who had reached 
there being for the most part entirely disorganized. 

The horror of the bloody field is now heightened by 
the burning of the prosperous town of Charlestown. 
This had been threatened as early as April 21, by Gen- 
eral Gage, if the American forces occupied the town;, 
and the patriotic inhabitants had informed General 
Ward that they desired him to conduct his military 
operations without regard to it. Complaining of the 
annoyance which the sharp-shooters posted along its 
edges gave to his troops upon the extreme left, General 
Howe has requested that it be fired, which is done by 
the cannon from Copp's Hill; it may be also, as was 
afterwards said, under the impression that his assaulting 
columns would be covered by its smoke. The smoke 
was drifted, however, in the other direction; and the 
provincials beheld without dismay a deed which indi- 
cated the ruthless mode in which the war was to be 
prosecuted. As the enemy advanced to the second 
assault, their fire was more effective. At the redoubt, 
Colonels Buckminster, Brewer, and Nixon are wounded; 
Major Moore mortally. 'No general result is produced; 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 101 

and again, as they reach the distance prescribed, the fire 
of the Americans, directed simultaneously along the 
whole length of the line, alike of the redoubt and 
breastwork as well as the rail-fence, is even more de- 
structive than before. Standing the first shock, the 
enemy continue to advance and fire still ; but against so 
rapid and effective a wave as they now receive, it is im- 
possible to hold their ground, and although their officers, 
themselves the worst sufferers, ire seen frantically sum- 
moning them to their duty, all is in vain; they are swept 
back in complete confusion. General Howe, opposite 
the rail-fence, is in the fiercest and thickest; left almost 
alone, as his officers are struck down around him, he is 
borne along by the current of the retreat rather than 
directs it. 

This time the repulse was terrific. " In front of our 
works," says Prescott, " the ground was covered with 
the killed and wounded, many of them within a few 
yards," while before the rail-fence "the dead," in the 
homely phrase of Stark, " lay thick as sheep in a fold." 
Disorder reigned in the British ranks ; to stay the rout 
was for the moment impossible, as many of the compa- 
nies had entirely lost their officers, and for a short time 
it seemed that they could not rally again. Had there 
been a reserve of fresh troops now to advance (which 
there might have been, had it been possible to organize 
the scattered detachments which had already reached 
Bunker's Hill), or even proper support and reinforce- 
ment, the conflict would have ended by a victory so 
complete that perhaps it would have been accepted as 
putting an end to the British power in America. 



102 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OP THE 

Before the third assault some reinforcements reached 
the rail-fence, especially three Connecticut companies 
under Major Durkee, and a portion of Gardiner's regi- 
ment from Middlesex, the colonel of which was killed 
during the engagement. A part of this regiment was 
detained by Putnam on his proposed work at Bunker 
Hill. The company of Josiah Harris, of Charlestown, 
took its post at the extreme left of our line at the rail- 
fence, and won for its native town the honor, when the 
retreat commenced, of being the last to leave the field. 

To the redoubt and breastwork no reinforcements 
came; and, although the determined and remarkable 
man who conducted its defence may well have been dis- 
appointed at this failure, no word of discouragement 
escaped his lips. He knew well the duty which as an 
officer he owed his men, and at another time might have 
felt that he ought to retreat from a position, the chance 
of holding which was so slight; yet there was still a 
chance, and he comprehended fully that on that day it 
was not a question of strategy or manoeuvre, but of the 
determination and courage of the American people in 
the assertion of their freedom, which was there bloodily 
debated. Calm and resolute, cheerful still in outward 
demeanor, he moved around his lines^ assuring his men, 
"If we drive them back again, they cannot rally; " and, 
inspired by their confidence in him, they answer enthu- 
siastically, " We are ready." 

]STo supplies of powder have been received, and there 
are not in his whole command fifty bayonets, so that if 
the fire shall slacken, and the enemy force their way 
through it, resistance is impossible. No man has over 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 103 

three rounds of ammunition, and many only two; and, 
when a few artillery cartridges are discovered, the 
powder in them is distributed, with the injunction that 
not a kernel should be wasted. 

Discipline, which at such moments will always tell, 
in perhaps half an hour has done its work among 
the British troops; and no longer self-confident, but 
realizing the terrible work before them, the men are 
throwing off knapsacks for a final and desperate assault. 
Some have remonstrated; but Sir William, less attractive 
than his brother, General Lord Howe, less able than his 
brother, Admiral Lord Howe, who now bears the family 
title, is a stern soldier, and in personal courage and* v 
determination in no way unworthy of the martial race 
to which he belongs. He feels that his own reputation 
and that of the soldiers he commands is ruined forever 
if they sustain defeat at the hands of a band of half- 
armed rustics. Victory itself will now be attended 
with mortification enough, after such severe repulses 
and such terrible losses. 

From the other side of the river General Clinton has 
seen the discomfiture, and, bringing some reinforcements, 
comes to aid him in rallying his men. Howe has seen, 
too, what Clinton has also observed, the error of the 
former disposition of his force, and that the weak point 
of the American line is between the breastwork and the 
rail-fence. Toward this and against the redoubt and 
breastwork he now arranges his next attack. Cannon 
are brought to bear so as to rake the inside of the 
breastwork; and, making a demonstration only against 



104 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

the rail-fence that may check any movement upon the 
flank of his troops, he divides them in three columns. 

The two at the left are commanded respectively by 
Clinton and Pigot, while the right he leads in person. 
They are to assault together, Clinton upon the left, at 
the south-eastern angle, and Pigot, upon the eastern 
front of the redoubt, while Howe's own force is to carry 
the breastwork, and, striking between it and the rail- 
fence, bar the way of retreat. Against this formidable 
array no other preparation could be made by Prescott 
than to place at the angles of his redoubt the few 
bayonets at his disposal, and to direct that no man 
should fire until the enemy were within twenty yards. 

The fire of the British artillery, now rendered 
effective, sweeps the inside of the breastwork, and, no 
longer tenable, its defenders crowd within the redoubt. 
Again the voice of Prescott is heard, as the attacking 
columns approach and are now only twenty yards 
distant, giving the order to fire. So telling and deadly 
is the discharge that the front ranks are almost 
prostrated by it; but, as the fire slackens, the British 
columns, which have wavered for an instant, move 
steadily on without returning it. Almost simultaneously 
upon the three points which are exposed to the assault 
the enemy reach the little earthwork which so much 
brave blood has been spent to hold and to gain; and, 
while they are now so near that its sides already cover 
them, its commander, determined to maintain it to the 
last extremity, orders those of his men who have no 
bayonets to retire to the rear and fire upon the enemy 
as they mount the parapet. 



BATTLE OF BUSKER HTLL. 105 

Those who first ascend are shot down as they scale 
the works, among them Pitcairn, whose rashness (even 
if we give him the benefit of the denial he always made 
of having ordered his soldiers to fire at Lexington) still 
renders him responsible for the first shedding of blood in 
the strife. In a few moments, however, the redoubt is 
half filled by the storming columns; and, although a 
fierce conflict ensues, it is too unequal for hope, and 
shows only the courage which animates the men, who, 
without bayonets, use the butts of their muskets in the 
fierce effort to stay the now successful assault. As the 
enemy are closing about the redoubt, if the force is to 
be extricated from capture, the word to retreat must be 
given, and reluctantly the brave lips, which have spoken 
only the words of cheer and encouragement, utter it at 
last. Already some are so involved that they hew their 
way through the enemy to join Prescott, and he himself 
is again and again struck at by the bayonet, of which his 
clothes give full proof afterward, but defends himself 
with his sword, the use of which he understands. As 
our forces leave the redoubt by the entrance on the 
northern side, they come between the two columns which* 
have tinned the breastwork, and the south-eastern angle 
of the redoubt. These are, however, too much ex- 
hausted to use the bayonet effectually, and all are so 
mingled together that for a few moments the British 
cannot fire; but as our men extricate themselves the 
British re-form, and deliver a heavy fire upon them as 
they retreat. 

In the mean time the attack has been renewed upon 
the rail-fence, but its defenders know well that, if they 

14 



106 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

would save their countrymen at the redoubt, they must 
hold it resolutely for a few moments longer, and they 
defend it nobly, resisting every attempt to turn the 
flank. They see soon that Prescott has left the hill, 
that the intrenchments are in the hands of the enemy 
at last; and, their own work gallantly done, they 
retreat in better order than could have been expected 
of troops who had so little organization, and who 
looked for the first time on a battle-field. Upon the 
crest of Bunker Hill (properly so called) General Put- 
nam, with the confused forces already there, gallantly 
struggles to organize a line and make a new stand, 
but without success. Our forces recross the Neck and 
occupy Ploughed Hill, now Mount Benedict, at its head; 
but there is no disposition on the part of the British to 
pursue, for the terrible slaughter too well attests the 
price at which the nominal victory has been obtained. 

The loss of the British, according to General Gage's 
account, was in killed and wounded ten hundred and 
fifty-four, and it was generally believed that this was 
understated by him. There was inducement enough 
to do this; for so disastrous was his despatch felt to 
be that the government hesitated to give it to the 
public, until forced to do so by the taunts of those 
who had opposed the war, and the method by which 
it had been provoked. 

Sir William Howe seemed to have borne that day a 
charmed life; for, while ten officers of his staff were 
among the killed and wounded, he had escaped sub- 
stantially uninjured. His white silk stockings, draggled 
with the crimson stain of the grass, wet with the blood 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 107 

of his men, attested that he had kept the^ promise made 
to them on the beach, that he should ask no man to go 
farther than he was prepared to lead. 

On the American side the loss, as reported by the 
Committee of Safety, was in killed and wounded four 
hundred and forty-nine, — by far the larger part of these 
casualties occurring in the capture of the redoubt, and 
after the retreat commenced. Prescott, who, in the 
hours that had passed since he left Cambridge, had 
done for the independence of his country work that 
the greatest might well be satisfied with doing in a 
lifetime, was unhurt; but as the retreat commenced 
Warren had fallen, than whom no man in America 
could have been more deeply deplored. 

Massachusetts in her Congress, and the citizens of 
all the colonies, united in doing honor to his heroic 
self-sacrifice, and pure, noble fame; but no eulogy was 
more graceful than that of Mrs. John Adams, herself 
one of the most interesting figures of the Revolution, 
or more touching than that of the warm-hearted Pome- 
roy, who lamented the caprice of that fortune which had 
spared him in the day of battle, an old war-worn soldier 
whose work was nearly done, and taken Warren in the 
brightness of his youth, and with his vast capacity to 
serve his country. Yet for him who shall say it was 
not well; there are many things in life dearer than life 
itself: honor in its true and noble sense, patriotism, 
duty, all are dearer: to all these he had been faithful. 
His position is forever among the heroes and martyrs 
of liberty, — his reward forever in the affection of a 
grateful people. As the dead always bear to us the 



108 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

image which they last bore when on earth, and as by 
the subtle power of the imagination we summon before 
us the brave who stood here for their country, that noble 
presence, majestic in its manly beauty, seems to rise 
again, although a hundred years are gone, with all the 
fire of his burning eloquence, with all the ardor of his 
patriotic enthusiasm, with all the loftiness of his gen- 
erous self-devotion. So shall it seem to rise, although 
centuries more shall pass^ to inspire his countrymen in 
every hour of doubt and trial with a valor and patriotism 
kindred to his own. 

The story I have told, fellow-citizens, has been often 
related before you far more vividly; nor has it been in 
my power to add anything to the facts which patient 
and loving investigation has long since brought to light. 
Tested by the simple rule that whoever holds or gains 
the ground fought for wins the victory, the battle was, 
of course, at its close, a defeat for the provincial forces; 
but it was a defeat that carried and deserved to carry 
with it all the moral consequences of a victory. As 
General Burgoyne gazed from Copp's Hill on the scene 
which he so graphically describes in a letter to Lord 
Stanley, he was saddened, he says, " by the reflection 
that a defeat would be perhaps the loss of the British 
empire in America; " but, although in his eyes a 
victory, it was one which equally marked the loss of 
that empire. 

The lesson drawn from it was the same both in 
Europe and America. _ "England," wrote Franklin, 
" has lost her colonies forever ; " and Washington, as 
he listened with intense interest to the narrative, and 



BATTLE OE BUNKER HILL. 109 

heard that the troops he was coming to command had 
not only withstood the fire of the regulars, but had 
again and again repulsed them, renewed his expressions 
of confidence in final victory. 

In England the news was received with mortification 
and astonishment; no loss in proportion to the number 
engaged had ever been known so serious; and in the 
excited debates of the Parliament it was afterwards 
alleged to have been caused by the misbehavior of the 
troops themselves. The charge was certainly unjust; 
for, whatever may be thought of his own management, 
the troops he had directed deserved the praise that 
General Gage gave them when he said, " British valor 
had never been more conspicuous than in this action." 
From his eyes the scales seemed to have fallen at last; 
and closely beleaguered still, even after the victory he 
claimed, he acknowledged that the people of ]STew 
England were not " the despicable rabble they had 
sometimes been represented," and recognized that an 
offensive campaign here was not possible. 

The shrewd Count Vergennes, who, in the hour of 
the humiliation of France by the loss of her colonial 
possessions, had predicted that she would be avenged 
by those whose hands had largely wrought it, and that 
as the colonies no longer needed the protection of Great 
Britain they would end by shaking off all dependence 
upon her, was now the French Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, and keenly remarked that " if it won two more 
such victories as it had won at Bunker Hill, there 
would be no British army in America." 

The battle of Bunker Hill had consolidated the Rev- 



110 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

olution. Had the result been different; had it been 
shown that the hasty, ill-disciplined levies of New 
England could not stand before the troops of the king 
(or the ministerial troops, as our official documents 
called them) ; had the easy victory over them, which 
had been foolishly promised, been weakly conceded, 
— the cause of independence might have been indefi- 
nitely postponed. Nay, it is not impossible that 
armed resistance might for the time have ended, and 
that other colonies not so deeply involved in the con- 
test might have extricated themselves, each making 
such terms as it pleased or as it could. But the cool- 
ness and splendid valor with which the best troops 
then known had been met, the repulses which they 
had again and again encountered, the bloody and 
fearful cost at which they had finally carried the 
coveted point, that their opponents had yielded only 
when ammunition utterly failed — had shown that the 
yeomanry of New England were the true descendants 
of that race who, on the battle-fields of England, had 
stood against and triumphed over King Charles and 
his cavaliers. " New England alone," said John 
Adams, " can maintain this war for years." He was 
right; the divisions that existed elsewhere were prac- 
tically unknown here; no matter what colonies hesi- 
tated or doubted, her path was straightforward, and 
her goal was independence. While her colonies 
deferred to the Continental Congress the form of 
government they should adopt, each had taken into 
its own hands all the powers that rightfully belong to 
sovereign States, and exercised them through its 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. Ill 

provincial Congress and its committees. Heartily 
desiring and eagerly looking forward to a union of 
the colonies, she had settled that in her local affairs 
she was competent to govern herself: this she had 
maintained that day in arms, and her period of 
vassalage was over. 

Willingly would I pursue the theme further; but the 
limits which custom prescribes for an address of this 
nature are too narrow to permit this. You know well 
the years of doubt, anxiety, and struggle that succeeded; 
but before we part something should be said of those 
that have passed since their triumphant close. 

I have forborne to speak of the causes which led to 
the American Revolution. They have recently been 
so carefully and ably analyzed by the distinguished 
orators who aided in the celebrations at Concord and 
Lexington, that I have preferred to devote a few 
moments to a consideration of some of its effects, by 
which the propriety and wisdom of such a movement 
in human affairs must always be eventually tested. 

That the formation and adoption of the Constitution 
of the United States has been to us, since our inde- 
pendence was finally achieved, the great event of the 
century, must be universally conceded. It was the 
great good fortune and the crowning triumph of the 
statesmen who guided us through the Revolution, that 
they lived long enough to embody its results in a 
permanent and durable form; for it is harder to secure 
the fruits of a victory than to win the victory itself. 
Many a day of triumph upon the field has been but a 
day of carnage and of empty glory, barren in all that 



112 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

was valuable; and the victories that have been won 
upon the political field are no exceptions to the rule, 
with which history teems with illustrations. 

Our ancient ally, whose services during the last 
years of our war were of so much value to our ex- 
hausted treasury and armies, and whose gift of the 
generous and chivalric Lafayette at its opening was 
almost equally precious, passed a few years later than 
we through its own desperate struggle; yet, although 
that fierce tide swept in a sea of fire and blood over all 
the ancient institutions of the monarchy, how impossi- 
ble it has proved to this day for France to supply the 
place of the government which it so sternly overthrew 
with one thoroughly permanent, giving peace and 
security! Republic, Directory, Consulate, Empire, 
Kingdom, have had their turn; dynasty after dynasty, 
faction after faction, have asserted their sway over 
her. 

For a government under the constitutions of the 
several States, and under that of the United States, this 
people was prepared alike by its previous history, and 
by that which followed its separation from Britain. It 
was the legitimate outgrowth of experience, and not a 
government framed, like those of the Abbe Sieyes at 
the end of their revolution for the French, by the aid 
of philosophic speculation, and on the basis of that 
which should be, and not of that which was. While 
the colonies, by means of their representative and leg- 
islative systems, had been accustomed to deal with 
their local affairs, and impose their local taxation, and 
had successfully resisted the attempt to interfere with 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 113 

these rights, yet, from the relation they had also been 
accustomed to sustain toward Britain, it was not to 
them a novel idea that two governments, each com- 
plete and supreme within its sphere, might coexist, the 
one controlling the local affairs of each individual 
State, while the other exercised its powers over all in 
their intercourse with each other and with foreign 
nations. 

Painfully conscious of their weakness, the desire for 
a union of all had gone hand in hand with the desire of 
each to preserve its own separate organization. The 
first Continental Congress had not exercised political 
authority; it had assembled only on behalf of the 
United Colonies to petition and remonstrate against the 
various arbitrary acts of the British government. 
Those which followed, however, with patriotic courage 
had boldly seized the highest powers; yet, as they 
could exercise such powers only so far as each State 
gave its assent and sustained them, the necessary 
result followed that their decrees were often but feebly 
executed, and sometimes utterly disregarded. Later 
in the war the Confederation had followed, by which it 
had been sought to fix more definitely the relation of 
the States by giving more determinate authority to the 
Congress, and to rescue the country from the financial 
ruin which had overtaken it. 

But the powers of the Congress of the Confedera- 
tion, like those of the Continental Congress, were such 
as were consistent only with a league of sovereign and 
independent States, and were in their exercise less 
eflicacious, because they had been carefully defined and 

15 



114 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

limited. The Confederation did not constitute a gov- 
ernment; it did not assume to act upon the people, but 
upon the several States; and upon them no means 
existed of enforcing its requisitions and decrees, or of 
compelling them to the performance of the treaties it 
might make, or the obligations it might incur. Among 
allied powers, from the nature of the case, there is no 
mode of enforcing the agreement of alliance except by 
war. 

The great work of achieving independence had, how- 
ever, been completed by the Confederation in spite of 
all its weakness and inherent defects. These were, 
however, more clearly seen when the sense of an imme- 
diate and common danger, and the cohesive pressure of 
war, were withdrawn. A mere aggregation of States 
could not take its place among the peoples of the world. 
A national sovereignty was needed, capable of establish- 
ing a financial system of its own, of raising money for 
its own support by taxation or regulations of trade, of 
forming treaties with sufficient power to execute them, 
of insuring order in every State, of bringing each State 
into proper relations with the others, and able, if need 
be, to declare war or maintain peace, — a sovereignty 
which should act directly on the people themselves in 
the exercise of all its rightful powers, and not through 
the intervention of the States. 

The years of unexampled depression which followed 
peace with Britain were not attributable only to the 
exhaustion of war: the impossibility of establishing a 
financial or a commercial system, the sense of insecurity 
that prevailed, paralyzed industry and enterprise. Al- 



BATTLE OE BUNKER HILL. 115 

ready j airings and contests between the several States 
presaged the danger which had destroyed the republics 
of Greece and those of Italy during the Middle Ages; 
already civil discord, which, although suppressed, had 
thrown the State temporarily into confusion, had made 
its appearance in Massachusetts; already doubts began 
to be expressed, even by some who had been ardent in 
the patriot cause, whether they had been wise to separate 
from a government which, even if monarchical, was 
strong and able to defend and protect its subjects; and 
it had come to be realized that there must be somewhere 
a controlling power competent to maintain peace between 
the States, and to guarantee to each the security of its 
own government. 

The Convention which met at Philadelphia in 1787 
gave these States a government, and made them a na- 
tion; and while I know to that which is impersonal 
there is wanting much of the ardor that personal loy- 
alty inspires, yet, so far as there may be warmth in the 
devotion we cherish for an institution, it should awaken 
at the mention of the Constitution of the United States. 
The noble preamble declares by whom it is made, and 
defines its purposes : " We, the people of the United 
States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish 
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
common defence, promote the general welfare, and se- 
cure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America." In the largest measure it 
has fulfilled these objects; and the judgment and far- 
seeing wisdom with which its founders met the diflicul- 



116 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

ties before them more and more challenge onr admira- 
tion as the years advance and the republic extends. 

Formed by men who differed widely in their views, — 
some who clung resolutely still to the idea that it was 
dangerous to the liberties of the States to constitute an 
efficient central power, and others who, like Hamilton, 
preferred a consolidated government whose model should 
be the British Constitution, ■ — it might easily have been 
that a government so framed should have been a patch- 
work of incongruities, whose discordant and irrecon- 
cilable provisions would have revealed alternately the 
influence of either opinion. Yet, differing although 
they did, they were statesmen still ; and, educated in the 
rough school of adversity and trial, they realized that a 
government must be constructed capable alike of daily 
efficient practical operation, and of adapting itself to 
the constantly varying exigencies in which sovereign 
States must act. How doubtful they were of their suc- 
cess, how nobly they succeeded in the government they 
made, to-day we know. 

We have seen its vast capacity for expansion as it 
has received under the shield, on which are emblazoned 
the arms of the Union, State after State, as it has arisen 
in what was on the day of its formation the untrodden 
wilderness, and advanced to the blessings of liberty and 
civilization; we have recognized the flexibility it pos- 
sesses in leaving to States materially differing in local 
characteristics and interests the control and manage- 
ment of their immediate affairs ; and we have known its 
capacity to vindicate itself in the wildest storm of civil 
commotion. 



BATTLE OE BUNKER HILL. 117 

Let us guard this Uuion well; for as upon it all that 
is glorious in the past is resting, so upon it all our hopes 
of the future are founded. Let us demand, of those who 
are to administer its great powers, purity, disinterested- 
ness, devotion to well-settled, carefully considered prin- 
ciples and convictions. Let us cherish the homely but 
manly virtues of the men who for it met the storm of 
war in behalf of a government and a country; their sim- 
ple faith in what was just and right, that found its root 
in their unswerving belief in something higher than 
mere human guidance. Let us encourage that univer- 
sal education, that diffusion of knowledge, which every- 
where oppose themselves as barriers, steadily and firmly, 
alike to plunder and fraud, to disorder and turbulence. 
Above all, let us strive to maintain and renew the fra- 
ternal feeling which should exist between all the States 
of the Union. 

We will not pretend that the trial through which we 
have passed has faded either from our hearts or memo- 
ries ; yet no one will, I trust, believe that I would rudely 
rake open the smouldering embers that all would gladly 
wish to see extinguished forever, or that, deeply as I 
feel our great and solemn obligations to those who pre- 
served and defended the Union, I would speak one word 
except with respect and in kindness even to those who 
assailed it, yet who have now submitted to its power. 

In the Union two classes of States had their place 
differing radically in this, that in the one the system 01 
slavery existed. It was a difficulty which the fathers 
could not eliminate from the problem before them. They 
dealt with it with all the wisdom and foresight they 



118 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

possessed. Strongly impressed in their belief of the 
equal rights of man, — for their discussions had com- 
pelled them to deal with fundamental principles, — they 
were not so destitute of philosophy that they did not see 
that what they demanded for themselves should be ac- 
corded to others; and, believing that the whole system 
would fade before the noble influence of free government 
as a dark cloud melts and drifts away, they watched, 
and with jealous care, that when that day came the 
instrument they signed should bear no trace of its 
existence. It was not thus to be, and the system has 
passed away in the tempest of battle and amid the clang 
of arms. 

The conflict is over, the race long subject is restored 
to liberty, and the nation has had " under God a new 
birth of freedom." 'No executions, no harsh punish- 
ments, have sullied the conclusion; day by day the 
material evidences of war fade from our sight, the 
bastions sink to the level of the ground which sur- 
rounded them, scarp and counter-scarp meet in the ditch 
which divided them. So let them pass away forever. 
The contest is marked distinctly only by the changes in 
the organic laws of the Constitution, which embody 
in more definite forms the immortal truths of the 
Declaration of Independence. That these include more 
than its logical and necessary results cannot fairly be 
contended. Did I believe that they embraced more than 
these, did I find in that great instrument any changes 
which should place or seek to place one State above 
another, or above another class of States, so as to mark 
a victory of sections or localities, I could not rejoice, for 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



119 



I should know that we had planted the seeds of 
" unnumbered woes." 

To-day it is the highest duty of all, no matter on 
what side they were, but, above all, of those who have 
struggled for the preservation of the Union, to strive 
that it become one of generous confidence, in which all 
the States shall, as of old, stand shoulder to shoulder, if 
need be, against the world in arms. Toward those with 
whom we were lately in conflict, and who recognize that 
the results are to be kept inviolate, there should be no 
feeling of resentment or bitterness. To the necessity of 
events they have submitted; to the changes in the 
Constitution they have assented; we cannot and we do 
not think so basely or so meanly of them as to believe 
that they have done so except generously and without 
mental reservation. 

We know that it is not easy to readjust all the rela- 
tions of society when one form is suddenly swept away; 
that the sword does its work rudely, and not with that 
gradual preparation which attends the changes of peace. 
We realize that there are difficulties and distrusts not to 
be removed at once between those who have been mas- 
ters and slaves; yet there are none which will not ulti- 
mately disappear. All true men are with the South in 
demanding for her peace, order, honest and good gov- 
ernment, and encouraging her in the work of rebuilding 
all that has been made desolate. We need not doubt 
the issue; she will not stand as the " Kiobe of nations," 
lamenting her sad fate; she will not look back to 
deplore a past which cannot and should not return; but 
with the fire of her ancient courage she will gird her- 



120 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

self up to the emergencies of her new situation, she will 
unite her people by the bonds of that mutual confidence 
which their mutual interests demand, and renew her 
former prosperity and her rightful influence in the 
Union. 

Fellow-citizens, we stand to-day on a great battle-field 
in honor of the patriotism and valor of those who fought 
upon it. It is the step which they made in the world's 
history we would seek to commemorate ; it is the exam- 
ple which they have offered us we would seek to imi- 
tate. The wise and thoughtful men who directed this 
controversy knew well that it is by the wars personal 
ambition has stimulated, by the armies whose force has 
been wielded alike for domestic oppression or foreign 
conquest, that the sway of despots has been so widely 
maintained. They had no love for war or any of its 
works, but they were ready to meet its dangers in their 
attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty. 
They desired to found no Roman republic, " whose ban- 
ners, fanned by conquest's crimson wing," should float 
victorious over prostrate nations, but one where the 
serene beauty of the arts of peace should put to shame 
the strifes that have impoverished peoples and degraded 
nations. To-day let us rejoice in the liberty which they 
have gained for us ; but let no utterances but those of 
peace salute our ears, no thoughts but those of peace 
animate our hearts. 

Above the plains of Marathon, even now, as the Gre- 
cian shepherd watches over his flocks, he fancies that 
the skies sometimes are filled with lurid light, and that 
in the clouds above are re-enacted the scenes of that 



BATTLE OP BUiraER HILL. 121 

great day when, on the field below, Greece maintained 
her freedom^ against the hordes who had assailed her. 
Again seem to come in long array, " rich with barbaric 
pearl and gold," the tnrbaned ranks of the Persian host, 
and the air is filled with the clang of sword and shield, 
as again the fiery Greek seems to throw himself npon 
and drive before him his foreign invader; shadows 
although all are that flit in wild, confused masses along 
the spectral sky. 

Above the field where we stand, even in the wildest 
dream, may no such scenes offend the calmness of the 
upper air, but may the stars look forever down upon 
prosperity and peace, upon the bay studded with its 
white-winged ships, upon the populous and far extend- 
ing city, with its marts of commerce, its palaces of 
industry, its temples, where each man may worship 
according to his own conscience; and, as the continent 
shall pass beneath their steady rays, may the millions of 
happy homes attest a land where the benign influence 
of free government has brought happiness and content- 
ment, where labor is rewarded, where manhood is hon- 
ored, and where virtue and religion are revered ! 

Peace forever with the great country from which the 
day we commemorate did so much rudely to dissever us ! 
If there were in that time, or if there have been since, 
many things which we could have wished otherwise, we 
can easily afford to let them pass into oblivion. But we 
do not forget in the struggle of the Revolution how 
many of her statesmen stood forth to assert the justice 
of our cause, and to demand for us the rights of which 
we had been deprived until the celebrated address was 

16 



122 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

passed which declared that the House of Commons 
would consider as enemies to the king and* country all 
those who would further attempt the prosecution of a 
war on the continent of America for the purpose of 
reducing the American colonies to obedience. 

From her we have drawn the great body of laws 
which, modified and adapted to our different situation, 
protect us to-day in our property, its descent, possession, 
and transmission, and which guard our dearer personal 
rights by the habeas corpus and the trial by jury. They 
were our countrymen who from the days of King John 
to those of George III. have made of her a land in 
which "freedom has broadened slowly down from 
precedent to precedent." 

It was she that had placed her foot upon the " divine 
right of kings," and solemnly maintained that govern- 
ments exist only by consent of the governed, when, in 
1688, she changed the succession to the British crown, 
and caused her rulers to reign thereafter by a statute of 
Parliament. 

From her we learned the great lessons of con- 
stitutional liberty which as against her we resolutely 
asserted. There was no colony of any other kingdom 
of Europe that would have dreamed of demanding as 
rights those things which our fathers deemed their 
inheritance as Englishmen, none that would not have 
yielded unhesitatingly to any injunction of the parent 
State. Whatever differences have been or may here- 
after come, let us remember still that we are the only 
two great distinctly settled free governments, and that 



BATTLE OF BtHSTKER HILL. 123 

the noble English tongue in which we speak alike is 
" the language of freemen throughout the world." 

Above all, may there be peace forever among the 
States of this Union ! . " The blood spilt here," said 
"Washington upon the place where we stand, "roused 
the whole American people, and united them in defence 
of their rights, — that Union will never be broken." 
Prophecies may be made to work their own fulfilment ; 
and, whatever may have been our trials and our difficul- 
ties, let us spare no efforts that this shall be realized. 
Achieving our independence by a common struggle, 
endowed to-day with common institutions, we see even 
more clearly than before that the States of this Union 
have before them a common destiny. 

We have commenced here in Massachusetts the cele- 
bration of that series of events which made of us a 
nation ; and let each, as it approaches in the centennial 
cycle, serve to kindle anew the fires of patriotism. Let 
us meet on the fields where our fathers fought, and 
where they lie, whether they fell with the stern joy of 
victory irradiating their countenances, or in the gloomy 
hours of disaster and defeat. Alike in remembrance of 
Saratoga and Yorktown, and of the dreary winter of 
Valley Forge, at Trenton and Princeton, and at the 
spots immortalized in the bloody campaign of the Jer- 
seys, at King's Mountain and Charleston, at Camden 
and Guilford Court House, and along the track of the 
steadily fighting, slowly retreating Greene through the 
Carolinas. 

Above all, at the city from which went forth the 
Declaration that we were, and of right ought to be, a 



124: CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

free and independent nation, let us gather, and, by the 
sacred memories of the great departed, pledge ourselves 
to transmit untarnished the heritage they have left us. 

The soldiers of the Revolution are gone, the states- 
men who embodied their work in the Constitution of the 
United States have passed away. With them, too, sleep 
those who in the earlier days watched the development 
of this wondrous frame of government. 

The mighty master of thought and speech, by whose 
voice fifty years ago was dedicated the Monument at 
whose base we stand, and whose noble argument that 
the Constitution is not a compact, but a law, by its 
nature supreme and perpetual, won for him the proud 
name of the Expounder of the Constitution, rests with 
those whose work he so nobly vindicated, happy at least 
that his eyes were not permitted to behold the sad sight 
of States " discordant, belligerent, and drenched in 
fraternal blood." 

The lips of him who twenty-five years ago commem- 
orated this anniversary with that surpassing grace and 
eloquence all his own, and with that spirit of pure pat- 
riotism in which we may strive at least to imitate him, 
are silent now. Throughout the cruel years of war that 
clarion voice, sweet yet far-resounding, summoned his 
countrymen to the struggle on which our Union de- 
pended; yet the last time that it waked the echoes of the 
ancient hall dedicated to liberty, even while the retiring 
storm yet thundered along the horizon, was, as he would 
have wished it should have been, In love and charity to 
the distressed people of the South. 

But, although they have passed beyond the veil which 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 125 

separates the unseen world from mortal gaze, the lessons 
which they have left remain, adjuring us whatever may 
have been the perils, the discords, the sorrows of the 
past, to struggle always for that " more perfect Union " 
ordained by the Constitution. Here, at least, however 
poor and inadequate for an occasion that rises so vast 
and grand above us our words may be, none shall be 
uttered that are not in regard and love to all of our 
fellow-citizens, no feelings indulged except those of 
anxious desire for their prosperity and happiness. 

Beside those of New England, we are gratified to-day 
by the presence of military organizations from New 
York and Pennsylvania, from Maryland, Virginia, and 
South Carolina, as well as by that of distinguished citi- 
zens from these and other States of the Union. Their 
fathers were ancient friends of Massachusetts; it was 
the inspiration they gave which strengthened the heart 
and nerved the arm of every man of New England. In 
every proper and larger sense the soil upon which their 
sons stand to-day is theirs as much as ours; and, 
wherever there may have been estrangement, here at 
least we have met upon common ground. They unite 
with us in recognition of the great principles of civil and 
religious liberty, and in pious memory of those who 
vindicated them; they join with us in the wish to make 
of this regenerated Union a power grander and more 
august than its founders dared to hope. 

Standing always in generous remembrance of every 
section of the Union, neither now nor hereafter will we 
distinguish between States or sections in our anxiety for 
the glory and happiness of all. To-day upon the verge 



126 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

of the centuries, as together we look back upon that 
which is gone in deep and heartfelt gratitude for the 
prosperity so largely enjoyed by us, so together will we 
look forward serenely and with confidence to that which 
is advancing. Together we will utter our solemn aspi- 
rations in the spirit of the motto of the city which now 
incloses within its limits the battle-field and the town for 
which it was fought : " As God was to our fathers, so 
may He be to us ! " 



The orator was listened to with close attention, and was 
frequently applauded. At the conclusion, Hon. E. R. Hoar 
proposed three cheers for General Devens, which, under the 
lead of the Marshal, were heartily given. 

Afterwards, the Apollo Club sung the following hymn, 
written by Charles James Sprague : — 



Here, where the savage bands 
Roved through the forest lands, 

Wild and unknown, 
Came sturdy men of yore, 
Strong in the faith they bore, 
Making this desert shore 

Freedom's high throne. 

Here, where the pilgrim few 
Unto a nation grew, 

Spread far and wide, 
Came an invading foe, 
That throne to overthrow 
With but a feeble blow 

Struck at our pride. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 127 

Here, where the patriots stood, 
Came that wild strife of blood, 

Where peace now reigns. 
Here hand to hand they met, 
Here then our soil was wet 
With the red tide that yet 

Throbs in our veins. 

Gone is the savage now, 
Gone the invading foe, 

Freed is our land. 
O Lord of war and peace, 
May strife forever cease, 
And may our strength increase, 

Fed by Thy hand! 

Judge Warren then advanced, and, gracefully acknowl- 
edging the applause which greeted him, addressed the audience 
as follows : — 



ADDRESS BY G. WASHINGTON WARREN, PRESIDENT OF 
THE ASSOCIATION. 

This is the first centennial anniversary of Bunker 
Hill. The century just past has presented to its suc- 
cessors yonder national Monument of gratitude to the 
heroic fathers of the republic. Erected under the 
supervision of Solomon Willard, that renowned archi- 
tect, who spurned to take the proper compensation for 
his eighteen years' service, being a descendant of a 
gallant officer whose remains lie at the foot of this 
hill; consecrated at its commencement and completion 
by the majestic Webster, whose words still live, and 
can never fail to instruct; impelled in its progress by 
the silver-voiced, all-persuasive Everett — the contribu- 



128 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

tion of the whole people, to which Louisiana, South 
Carolina, and the other States joined with Massa- 
chusetts, it stands the silent orator, gathering, in its 
massive form, all the time-hallowed associations of the 
place; and, as it lifts its gray head to keep company 
with the stars, and takes notes as impassively as they 
of the centimes that are to follow, may it be to all 
the inhabitants to the remotest age an inspiration to 
patriotism, and to those good works which make for 
the liberty, the union, and the true grandeur of the 
United States of America. 

The Association invoked the presence of the high 
officers of the National Government in its three co- 
ordinate departments, and of the Executive officer of 
every State, and of the principal city thereof. From 
the sincere regrets of the absent we know that all 
are here either in the body or in spirit. The heart 
of Bunker Hill, now crowning the metropolis of Bos- 
ton, is big enough to receive you all, and begs you 
in her name and in her undying glories to bury all 
animosities, and to resolve that henceforth there shall 
be no contention except who shall best serve our 
glorious country. 

"We desired also that every nation should be repre- 
sented here by its minister accredited to Washington, 
making this an occasion also of international harmony. 
Yes, we desired very much to be honored by the 
presence of the distinguished minister from our mother 
country, whose good sovereign is nowhere more highly 
esteemed than here. In 1871, Great Britain and 
the United States celebrated this anniversary by the 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



129 



folio wing the motto of President Grant, " Let us have 



77 



peace. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was fought by our fathers 
in defence of the principles of the British constitution, 
and the issue has been for the healing of all nations. 

At the Bunker Hill dinner, fifty years ago, Lafayette 
predicted that the toast on this Centennial day would 
be To Enfranchised Europe. How far this predic- 
tion has been verified, let the emancipation of the serfs 
in Kussia, the re-establishment of the republic in 
France, the enlargement of the suffrage in England, 
and the general spread of liberal principles and the 
encouragement of learning everywhere, answer. 

South Carolina has sent us a palmetto tree, which we 
have planted in front by the side of the pine tree. May 
those two State emblems to-day planted on Bunker 
Hill be a symbol of renewed fraternity, never again to 
be interrupted. Let it be taken also as a pledge of 
reunion between all the States; for, with Massachusetts 
and South Carolina in full accord, as they were one 
hundred years ago, our Union is as firm and enduring 
as our Monument, which they, with true patriotism, 
joined together in building. 

In calling upon some of our distinguished guests to 
address you briefly, I will take the liberty to present to 
you first the gallant General who has travelled fifteen 
hundred miles to participate in this celebration. 

17 



130 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

REMARKS OE GENERAL SHERMAN. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — Before re- 
sponding to your call, let me take issue with your hon- 
ored President in calling on me as the National Repre- 
sentative. You can see for yourselves on this platform 
the Vice-President of the United States, several Judges 
of the Supreme Court, and about a dozen Governors of 
States, all of whom take precedence of me, and all of 
whom are accustomed to speak and are expecting to 
address you. Still it is true that I have come about 
fifteen hundred miles to share in this grand Centennial, 
and I am glad that I have come. 

If I do nothing else, I can be the first to respond to 
General Devens' call, to come on this platform and renew 
the pledge to maintain and defend the Constitution of 
our country, to fight again, if need be, for the old flag 
and those sacred principles of right that were announced 
ninety-nine years ago by your Hancock and the 
Adamses. I know that there are many soldiers in 
this vast audience, and, were I to call on them to come 
forward and share in this pledge, I am sure they would 
promptly respond with an amen. 

Indeed do we stand on sacred soil at the foot of old 
Bunker Hill Monument. I almost feel pained to hear it 
called Breed's Hill. It was Bunker Hill when I was a 
boy, and to me it is Bunker Hill still. I find it 
recorded in bold letters on that granite shaft, and I 
insist that it is Bunker Hill. If Mr. Breed is here, 
I advise him to convey to Bunker, and be content with 
the other and larger hill close by. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 131 

I assure you that I have listened with the most intense 
interest to the graphic description by your orator, Gen- 
eral Devens, of that battle, fought on this ground one 
hundred years ago, and confess to a soldier's admira- 
tion of that small band, under Colonel Prescott, that was 
" told off " in the camp at Cambridge, to go, they knew 
not exactly where, to fight the veteran British host 
beleaguered in Boston. They marched off silently by 
night to do, as soldiers should, their duty; and it was 
providential that they were conducted to this very spot, 
instead of the one further back, designated in their 
orders. I have no doubt that General Devens has 
truthfully given the narration, with a fair distribution of 
the honors. 

Warren, though the senior present, did not assume, as 
he might have done, the supreme command, but fought 
as a volunteer, and died upon the field a martyr and a 
hero, venerated everywhere. 

Prescott was the actual commander on this spot. He 
conducted his brigade, prepared with their intrenching 
tools, and with their weapons to fight: Silently and 
with skill they constructed by night the redoubt and 
flank defences, and the daylight found them ready for 
the issue. How they fought you have already heard, 
and, as the actual commander on Bunker Hill, Prescott 
is entitled to all honor and glory. 

General Putnam, too, contributed large assistance ; but 
he has ample honor without claiming this. I like to 
think of him in that story of a man riding down tne 
fabulous stairs pictured in our story-books, at some 
place, I confess I now forget where. He was a 



132 CENTENNIAL ANNTVEIfcSAKY OF THE 

glorious old soldier, and his services and examples 
are worth a dozen monuments like this on Bunker 
Hill, even if made of pure gold. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have responded to your 
call, not with any purpose to edify you, but because you 
seem to desire it; and, though a stranger to most of you, 
I believe you desire to simply look upon and hear from 
one of those who have flitted across the horizon and 
attracted some notice; but I also thank you for your 
cordial reception, and for giving me the opportunity to 
witness one of the most gorgeous pageants that has ever 
occurred on this continent. 

Seated by thousands beneath this vast canopy, you 
doubtless esteem yourselves a vast and well-ordered 
crowd; but you are as nothing compared with the hosts 
which to-day lined the streets of Boston. You hardly 
equal the group which occupied each block of the hun- 
dreds along which we have passed to-day; and as the 
newspapers of the morning will describe to them, and 
to all the world, what occurs here, I will no longer 
occupy your time, but give place to the many orators 
that will be proud to address such an audience. I 
again thank you for your kind and cordial reception, 

and apologize for detaining you so long. 

* 

The President then said : — " There is a little time left. I 
propose to call upon all the Governors, beginning with the Gov- 
ernor who has come farthest to see us. All Governors will 
take notice thereof and govern themselves accordingly." 

The Governor of Mississippi and the Governor of Michigan 
were called, but neither responded. The Governor of Pennsyl- 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 133 

vania was next called for, and upon presenting himself was 
greeted with three cheers. 

REMARKS OF GOVERNOR HARTRANET. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — I certainly feel a delicacy 
in appearing before you as a Governor, because I was 
reminded to-day that Governors were as plenty in this 
town as general officers were at Washington during 
the war, and certainly I suppose some of those other 
gentlemen are now in the field doing duty. I did not 
come fifteen hundred miles, like my friend General 
Sherman, but I have brought with me fifteen hundred 
Pennsylvanians to take part in this celebration. It 
is not my desire to make any speech, but I know they 
would not like it did I not invite you from all States in 
the Union, and pledge you a cordial welcome to Phila- 
delphia next year, when the hundredth anniversary of 
our nation is to be celebrated. [The Pkesident. — 
:? We are coming."] The celebration is, of course, of a 
national character, and we in common only have our 
share in the ceremonies and in the exhibition. But we 
also have a local interest and pride in having every 
citizen, whether he comes from the JSTorth or the South, 
the East or the West, feel assured that he will receive 
all the hospitality that it is in our power to extend, and 
that we meet there as brothers and freemen around 
those famed precincts where the charters of our liberties 
were signed. Let us there bury our differences and 
our animosities, resolving to perpetuate and transmit, 
unimpaired and indivisible, the Union which has been 
given to us. 



134 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

The Apollo Club then sung the following song, written by 
Charles James Sprague : — 

Freedom dwells throughout our own beloved land ; 

Up to heaven its voice is swelling ; 
From the mountain heights afar to ocean strand 

Eveiy breeze the tale is telling. 
Never weary of the ever joyous song, 
Heart and voice united bear along. 
Loyal to the end, 
Ready to defend, 
Foe within and out repelling. 

War's alarum rolled a hundred years ago 

O'er the peaceful scene around us ; 
Where our patriot fathers struck a mortal blow 

At the haughty power that bound us. 
Now from north or south together e'er we stand, 
Dwellers in a free and mighty land. 
Loyal to the end, 
Ready to defend, 
What their gloried valor found us. 

Freedom dwells throughout our own beloved land. 

Wide as heaven arches o'er it ; 
Like the rising sun, the patriot's armed hand 

Swept the clouds of wrong before it. 
Sound aloud the joyous word from crag to crag ! 
Plant on every peak our starry flag ! 
Loyal to the end, 
Ready to defend, 
Guard, and, as a shrine, adore it ! 

The President next called upon the Governor of New Jersey, 
who responded as follows : — 

REMARKS OF GOVERNOR BEDLE. 

This is no time, ladies and gentlemen, to undertake 
to make a speech. On receiving the invitation to be 



BATTLE OF BUKKEK HILL. 135 

present on this occasion, I determined, if it were possi- 
ble, as an humble representative of the State of New 
Jersey, to come here and join in this celebration; and it 
is a happy moment for me to be here, in the home of 
the Adamses and of Hancock, two of whom, Samuel 
Adams and John Hancock, were rebels, in the estima- 
tion of Great Britain, of the deepest dye, and, when 
others were to be pardoned, their crimes were such as 
to merit only condign punishment. They were not 
rebels, they were patriots; they were freemen; they 
were raised up by Providence to assert the great 
principles that were afterwards fought for at the battle 
of Bunker Hill and proclaimed in the Declaration of 
Independence. 

I am here from New Jersey. New Jersey, too, has 
a history. I am here not to praise her. She has her 
record. She has her Trenton, her Princeton, and her 
Monmouth, and in due time those events will be cele- 
brated, and then we expect Massachusetts will be there. 
We expect to be at that great centennial of July 4th, 
1876, which is to be the grand consummation of all 
the centennials; and when you go across the territory 
of New Jersey remember that the winter of 1776 was 
" the time that tried men's souls " there. You know 
how our gallant American army, after evacuating New 
York, retreated across the State of New Jersey; how 
they were followed by the British army; how they 
were re-formed, and how, when those battles of Trenton 
and Princeton were fought, the depressed spirit of our 
forefathers revived and the tide of revolution turned. 

Now, my friends, I have nothing more to say, except 



136 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

to thank you for this great demonstration. This has 
been a magnificent pageant. Nothing like it, as Gen- 
eral Sherman said. Just think of it! Boston has 
emptied herself, the country has emptied herself, so to 
speak, into the streets through which we have passed 
to-day; and who could see this vast multitude without 
feeling that there was a revival of the good old spirit of 
ancient days ? When these centennials were first 
talked of, I thought very little of them; but now I 
confess I am getting very much in the idea. I believe 
they will do more than anything else to revive a 
better spirit. Let us forget the recent past; let us go 
back to the ancient past, if I may use that expression, 
and take our lessons from that. Let us look to our an- 
cestors, to the men who founded our institutions, for our 
examples. In that way, familiarizing ourselves with the 
history of those times, may we become better men and 
better citizens, ridding ourselves of the fraud and ex- 
travagance which have been the necessary results of the 
war. We want honesty of purpose; we want the dis- 
position to do, in our own times, if it becomes necessary, 
as our patriot fathers said they would do, eat no more 
lamb, if necessary, in order to have more wool to work 
up into homespun cloth. 

I again thank you, and now extend to you a cordial 
invitation to come down to New Jersey when the 
proper time arrives. 

The President then called for the Governors of Connecticut, 
New Hampshire and Khode Island, without obtaining any re- 
sponse. Finally, he called for the Governor of Maine, the 



BATTLE OE BUNKER HILL. 137 

representative of a State ' ' which ought to be part of Massa- 
chusetts still," and Governor Dingley of Maine responded. 

REMARKS OF GOVERNOR DINGLEY. 

Mr. President, and Fellow- Citizens of the United 
States : — For standing on ground baptized with the 
blood of the brave men who, a century since, stood for 
liberty and nationality, I am sure that we may all take 
special pride in the fact that we are not so much repre- 
sentatives of individual States as fellow-citizens of a 
common country. You have introduced me, Mr. Presi- 
dent, as the representative of that State which was once 
a part of Massachusetts, and which (as you kindly 
observed) ought to still occupy that position. I ac- 
knowledge the compliment which may be intended in 
the concession that Maine is worthy of being included 
in such a grand Commonwealth as Massachusetts; and 
yet I am sure that after a hundred and thirty years of 
devoted service in the old homestead, the daughter had 
reached her majority, and was entitled to set up house- 
keeping for herself. Assuredly, sir, you can testify 
that she was a devoted daughter, and did not go forth 
from the mother's arms until she saw her triumphant 
over foes abroad and at home, and the acknowledged 
leader of the best thought, and most beneficent ideas of 
the age. I assure you, sir, that Maine is proud of her 
political mother, the grand old Commonwealth, and 
entertains for her an affection which time cannot dim. 
"We feel that the glorious history of the Old Bay State 
is our history; that her Adams, and Hancock, and ^Pres- 

cott, and Warren belong also to us; and that her battle- 
is 



138 " CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

fields, her Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill 
are ours. And, standing to-day on the spot where the 
martyrs of liberty fell a hundred years ago this very 
afternoon, I pledge to you, and to the citizens of every 
other State of our common country here assembled, that 
the men of Maine will be ready in the future, as they 
have in the past, to stand shoulder to shoulder with you 
in defence of the nation which was then made possible. 
And may this centennial anniversary, and the centen- 
nial anniversaries to come, recalling as they do the 
memories of common sacrifices and common victories, 
serve to soften the resentments, and strengthen the ties 
of North and South, and lead the citizens of every sec- 
tion of the republic to acknowledge the stars and 
stripes as their flag, and the Union, dedicated to free- 
dom and equal rights, as their country and their home. 

The Chief Marshal called for " three cheers for Gov. Ding- 
ley," which were given with great heartiness. 

The President said : — "I stated to the audience that I would 
call upon our fellow-citizens of the United States in the order of 
the distance from which they came. We are now at home 
again, and at home in the United States of America, and I now 
call upon Vice-President Wilson." 

The Vice-President was greeted with three hearty cheers. 
He spoke as follows : — 

REMARKS OE HON. HENRY WILSON. 

I am sure, Mr. President, you have not presented me 
to this vast assemblage at this hour, to weary the ear 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 139 

with speech. Nor have you called me up to be looked 
at, for there are far better-looking gentlemen around 
you; besides, it is quite too dark to get a good sight at 
any one of us. I am here, too, in my own Middlesex. 
[A voice, "Suffolk now."] Charlestown has escaped 
from us into Suffolk, but we people of old Middlesex 
will hold on to Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill 
forever more. 

I am glad, Mr. President, that we have witnessed 
this magnificent spectacle. General Sherman tells us, 
strangers tell us, we know it, for our own eyes have 
seen it, that this is the grandest demonstration ever 
beheld upon the North American continent. I hope, 
I believe too, that this anniversary celebration, the 
memories associated with this day, the generous spirit 
that animates all bosoms, will largely contribute to the 
cause of unity and liberty in the century upon which we 
have entered. These celebrations at Concord, Lexing- 
ton and Bunker Hill, like the events they commemorate, 
tend to inspire all American hearts with patriotism and 
affectionate regard for our countrymen. I hail this 
anniversary, I hail the anniversaries upon which we have 
entered, as grand events, calculated to reunite, reinspire, 
and reinvigorate the American people, and bind us 
together with hooks of steel. The Centennial Cele- 
bration of the anniversary of Independence is to be 
in Philadelphia next year. I hope that this anniver- 
sary festival will tend to inspire the nation, and that 
the country and the people of the country will make 
that the grandest occasion ever witnessed by mortal 
man. Grabid as were the words of Daniel Webster, 



140 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

when the foundations of that Monument were laid, in 
the presence of Lafayette and the aged heroes of the 
Revolution; grand as were his words when that Monu- 
ment had been completed, no words uttered by him 
were better calculated to do more good, in all this broad 
land, than are the words uttered here to-day, in the 
present condition of the country. Let us, sir, all re- 
member that union now, nationality now, development 
now, are all in harmony with the great, grand, central 
idea of humanity, the liberties, equal and impartial 
liberties, of all the children of men. 

The President remarked : — M We have received two de- 
spatches to-day, one from San Francisco and one from New 
Orleans. I will ask the Marshal to read them, and then to 
read a short ode which has been selected from very many con- 
tributions offered." 

The Marshal read the despatches as follows : — 

San Francisco, June 17, 1875. 
To the Hon. George Washington Warren, President of the Bunker 
Hill Monument Association : — 
San Francisco, — from the golden gates of the Pacific to the Bunker 
Hill Association : The citizens of our Western shore send their 
fraternal greetings to our brethren of the Atlantic coast assembled on 
Bunker Hill to commemorate the centennial of the great battle fought 
there. We have our mass meeting to-night. 

New Orleans, June 17, 1875. 
Governor Gaston, Boston : — 

For myself, and the good people of the Crescent City, I send you 
greetings from Old Chalmette to Bunker Hill, on the occasion of your 
Centennial celebration. 

JOHN G. PACKER, 

Postmaster of New Orleans. 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 141 

The Marshal then read the following ode, written by Geoege 
Sennott, Esquire : — 



Heroes of Greek Renown ! 
Ye, who with floods of Persian gore 
Purpled Cychreia's sounding shore ! 
Strong wielders of the Dorian spear ■ 
And ye — dear children of the Dear - 

The Holy Violet Crown ! 
Ye live to-day. Distance and Time 
Vanish before our longing eyes — 
And fresh in their eternal prime 

The Demi-Gods arise. 



Fierce breed of iron Rome ! 
Ye whose relentless eagle's wings 
Overshadowing subjugated Kings, 
With Death and black Destruction fraught, 
To, ev'ry hateful Tyrant brought 

His own curs'd lesson home ! 
Smile sternly now ; a free-born race 
Here draw your proudest maxims in, 
And eagerly, in ampler space, 

And mightier Rome begin ! 

in. 

Savage, yet dauntless crew ! 
Who broke with grim, unflinching zeal, 
The mighty Spaniard's heart of steel, 
When ye, with patriotic hands, 
Bursting the dykes that kept your lands, 

Let Death and Freedom through ! 
Arise in glory ! Angry floods 
And haughty bigots all are tame, 
But ye, like liberating gods, 

Have everlasting fame. 



142 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

IV. 

Ye few rock-nurtured Men, 
Suliote or Swiss, whose crags defied 
Burgundian power and Turkish pride ! 
Whose deeds, so dear to Freedmen still, 
Make every Alp a holy hill — 

A shrine each Suliote glen ! 
Rejoice to-day ! No little bands 
Front here th' exulting Tyrant's horde ; 
But Freedom sways with giant hands 

Her ocean-sweeping sword ! 

v. 

Chiefs of our own blest land, 
To whom th' oppressed of all mankind 
A sacred refuge look to find ! 
Of every race the pride and boast, 
From wild Atlantic's stormy coast 

To far Pacific's strand ! 
Millions on millions here maintain 
Your generous aims with steady will, 
And make our vast imperial reign 

The world's asylum still ! 

The concluding hymn was then sung by the Apollo Club : — 

HYMN. 

WORDS BT G. WASHINGTON WAKREN — MUSIC BY ABT. 

From the blood that steeped this ground, 
From the flames which swept around, 
Comes to us the grateful sound, 

PLACID PEACE WITH LIBERTY. 



Not as now, in plenteous days, 
Earned our sires the Patriot's praise, 
But by hard and stormy ways, 
Got they us the victory. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 143 

Sweet it is to die for thee, 
Country fair — now grandly free ; 
Though to few that lot may be, 
ALL may nobly live for thee. 

God who led'st our Fathers forth, 
Gav'st our land her second birth, 
Bless these States with manly worth, 
Keep them close in harmony. 

A benediction was pronounced by the Rev. Phillips Brooks, 
and at eight o'clock the exercises at the pavilion were brought 
to a close. 



The following letter has been received from His Excellency 
Governor Ingersoll, in response to the call made upon him : — 

STATE Or CONNECTICUT. 

Executive Department, 

New Haven, June 18th, 1875. 

Dear Sir : — I very much regret that, under the erroneous supposi- 
tion that the exercises at Bunker Hill yesterday would, by reason of 
the lateness of the hour, close with the oration of General Devens, I 
left the tent at that time to fulfil another engagement and, therefore, 
was not present to acknowledge the honor paid to my State by your 
call upon me among the other guests of the occasion. 

It is the singular fortune of Connecticut that, although she sent 
into the armies of the Revolution more soldiers than any other colony 
save one, — maintaining in actual service, at one time, out of the 
State, twenty-two full regiments, when her population but little ex- 
ceeded two hundred thousand persons, — she must, nevertheless, look 
beyond her borders for the battle-fields that have been made historic 
by the valor and the blood of her children. Conspicuous among 
them all, and by far closer than any by its associations of peculiar 
force, is that field upon the Charlestown heights, where New England 



144 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OE THE 

for the first time confronted Old England in war. It was there that 
our young militia received its "baptism of fire," and our peaceful 
vines were first emblazoned upon a flag of battle ; and it is through 
the smoke and dust of the conflict around Bunker's Hill that there 
looms up most distinctly to Connecticut eyes one heroic fignre of the 
Revolution, — the man ' ' who dared to lead where any dared to 
follow," — Israel Putnam. 

It is for these reasons, especially, that it gave me great pleasure to 
participate in the superb demonstration in Boston yesterday, and that 
I now regret the circumstances which deprived me of the pleasure of 
sharing in all the subsequent exercises in Chailestown. 

I am, sir, very respectfully yours, 

CHARLES R. INGERSOLL. 

G. Washington Warren, Esq., 

President Bunker Hill Association, etc., etc., 
Ch,arlestown, Mass. 



The following letters and despatches were received by the 
Mayor : — 

STATE OE LOUISIANA. 

Mayoralty of New Orleans, 

City Hall, 22d day of May, 1875. 
Hon. Samuel C. Cobb, Mayor of Boston, Mass. : — 

Dear Sir, — Your esteemed favor of the 1 7th inst. , inviting me to 
participate in the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the 
Battle of Bunker Hill, and tendering to me the hospitalities of your 
city, has just been received. 

Please return my sincere thanks to the gentlemen of your City 
Council for their very kind invitation, and say to them that my 
official duties preclude the possibility of nry accepting the same. 

Permit me to assure you, sii\, that it is with great regret that I have 
to deny myself the pleasure of visiting your noble city, and of joining 
with you in the celebration of an event so replete with interest to all 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 145 

true lovers of our country. With my best wishes for your success, 
and the hope that you will have a glorious celebration, I have the 
honor to be, sir, with great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

CHARLES J. LEEDS, Mayor. 



CITY OF MEMPHIS. 

Mayor's Office, 

Memphis, Tenn., May 29th, 1875. 
To His Honor Samuel C. Cobb, Mayor of Boston, Mass. : — 

Dear Sir, — Your valued favor of the 17th inst., with invitation, 
from the committee appointed by the City Council of Boston, to be 
present at the Centennial Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, 
and tendering the hospitalities of the city on the occasion, came duly 
to hand, for which please accept my sincere and grateful acknowledg- 
ments. I postponed answering until now with the hope that it would 
be possible for me to be present and participate in one of the grandest 
celebrations which has ever occurred in America. But I am, sir, I 
regret to say, compelled by a pressure of public business to decline 
your cordial invitation ; this I regret the more, as the occasion would 
have afforded me an excellent, and much desired, opportunity to ex- 
press to you, personally, the thanks of our citizens to the good people 
of Boston for their liberality and very great kindness to us in the 
clays of affliction gone by. 

Americans have, in every section of this vast country, scenes to 

picture and events to speak of to stimulate national pride ; but nothing 

will live longer in history than the recollection of the valor and daring 

of the Minute Men at Bunker Hill ; and none know better how to 

keep alive a spirit of patriotism and celebrate great events than the 

people of Massachusetts. May its future be as prosperous as its past 

has been glorious. 

With assurances of respect, 

I am, dear sir, your obedient servant, 

JOHN LOAGUE, Mayor. 
19 



146 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OP THE 

CITY OF OMAHA. 
To His Honor Samuel C. Cobb, Mayor of Boston: — 

Dear Sib, — I Lave the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours 
of the 17th ult., informing me that the committee appointed by the 
City Council of Boston, to make arrangements for the celebration of 
the Centennial Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th 
of June, 1875, cordially invites me, as Mayor of the City of Omaha, 
to accept the hospitalities of your city on that occasion. 

Since its receipt I have been endeavoring so to arrange my official 
duties and professional engagements as to accept your most courteous 
invitation. I find myself, however, at this late day, unable so to do, 
and am therefore most reluctantly compelled to decline it. 

The thought that I might be permitted to be with you and witness 
the patriotic pageant of that — the great occasion to your city of the 
present century — has afforded me as much pleasure as the anticipa- 
tion of being at Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1876. 

Having been raised on a farm in the Old Granite State, one hun- 
dred miles from Boston, that city, was, during my early boyhood, 
before railroads, forty years ago, our chief market. Thence, each 
winter, as soon as the sleighing permitted, my father — who, allow me 
to mention here, was born in the same town, Cornish, on the Uh of 
July, 1776 — took his produce to exchange for family supplies. 

It was the highest ambition of the boys of my time to visit Boston, 
and the few who had that privilege were envied by all the others in 
the neighborhood. It is now thirty years since I have seen your city, 
but my early attachment to it, and admiration for it, have never 
ceased. It is indeed a solid city, and worthy of the good name it 
bears for intelligence and commercial greatness. 

In behalf of our young city, which I know has many strong friends 
in Boston, I thank you and the City Council of your city for this 
courtesy extended to Omaha, and assure you that the sons of New 
England, of whom there are many here, will take a deep interest in 
the celebration which marks the one hundredth anniversary of the 
Battle of Bunker Hill, — a battle in which the forefathers of some of 
them participated. 

Allow me in closing to offer the following sentiment : — 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 147 

Bunker Hill Monument and the City of Boston : the one perpetu- 
ates the patriotism of worthy sires ; the other illusti'ates the enter- 
prise of dutiful sons. 

I am, sir, most respectfully yours, 

C. J. CHASE. 

Mayor's Office, Omaha, June 5th, 1875. 



Allentown, Pa., June 17th, 1875. 
To the Mayor of Boston : — 

"We are. celebrating the battle of Bunker Hill here, to-day, under 
the auspices of the Ladies' Centennial Association of this city and 
county. Twenty thousand people are present on the fair grounds 
participating in the celebration, and witnessing the reproduction by 
our military of the thrilling scenes of that memorable event. We 
congratulate you on the procession at Bunker Hill ; but Pennsylvania 
claims as her right a share and interest in the great issues which that- 
struggle helped to inaugurate. 

LADIES' CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE. 



Philadelphia, June 17th, 1875. 
To His Honor the Mayor of Boston : — 

The National Board of Trade, in session at Philadelphia, pauses, 
in its consideration of questions relating to the commercial and indus- 
trial interests of our common country, and begs to offer to Boston, to 
Massachusetts, and to the nation at large, its expression of patriotic 
fervor, its love and devotion to the national life, and its earnest hope 
that those liberties which the blood of Bunker Hill helped to establish 
may never be abridged. 

By unanimous vote of the board. 

FREDERICK FRALEY, President. 
CHARLES RANDOLPH, Secretary. 



APPENDIX. 



THE LITERATURE OF BUNKER HILL, 

WITH ITS ANTECEDENTS AND EESULTS. 
[Prepared by Jdstin Winsor, Superintendent of the Boston Public Library.] 



[Note. — The following survey of the literature of the 
history of Boston during the Eevolutionary period, beginning 
with the excitement over the application for " Writs of Assist- 
ance " in 1761, and ending with the transfer of the seat of 
actual war, upon the evacuation of Boston, in March, 1776, — 
has been prepared to meet the renewed interest incident to 
the centennial celebrations. It is not intended to make refer- 
ence to all works, but only to such as are indicative in some 
respect.] 

WEITS OF ASSISTANCE, 1761. 

Shortly after the close of the French war ; when the British govern- 
ment was no longer dependent on the friendly assistance of the col- 
onies, and revenue was to be got from enforcing the acts of trade, the 
application of the agents of government for ' ' "Writs of Assistance " 
was met by James Otis in his plea against the grant.- Tudor' s life of 
Otis makes that patriot the centre of interest at this period, and the 
legal aspects of the case can be studied in Horace Gray's Appendix 
to the Reports of cases in the Superior Court, 1761-1772, b}^ Josiah 
Quinc3 T . The third volume of Hutchinson's " History of Massachu- 
setts," 1750-1774, gives the governmental view, while in Minot's 
History, 1748-1765, the patriot side is sustained, and this view is 
represented in the lives of Josiah Quincy, John Adams, and Samuel 
Adams. In its broad relations as indicating the temper of the people 
it is discussed by Bancroft in his ' ' History of the United States ; " 
by Hildreth in his " History of the United States ; " by Frothiugham 
in his "Rise of the Republic ; " by Barry, in his " History of Massa- 
chusetts," etc. 



152 APPEKDIX. 

STAMP ACT, 1765. 
To the authorities named in the preceding section may be added, 
for local coloring, the chapters in the histories of Boston by Drake, 
and b}^ Snow. See also ch. 14 of Tudor' s Otis. 

1767-1775. 

This period and its patriotic movements are made the special theme 
of Frothingham's ' ' Warren and his Times ; " and in the same author's 
" Rise of the Republic" the action of the patriots is viewed as tending 
to form the national spirit. A chapter in Tudor's Otis is given to 
characterizing the people of Boston at this time ; and in the collec- 
tion of contemporary documents called Niles's " Principles and Acts 
of the Revolution," the spirit of the people can be read in their own 
words and writings. In Mercy Warren's (she was a sister of 
James Otis) "History of the American Revolution" we have the 
characters of the most distinguished of the patriots drawn by one who 
knew them closely. 

The influence of the press is traced in the third era of Hudson's 
" History of American Journalism," and the aspects can be studied in 
the files of the five newspapers published in Boston at this time : — 

Fleet's Evening Post, patronized both by the whigs and the govern- 
ment. 

The Boston Newsletter, the only paper which continued to be 
published during the siege. 

The Massachusetts Gazette, the chief organ of the government. 

The Boston Gazette, devoted to the patriots. 

The Massachusetts Spy, devoted to the patriots. 

The most important journal out of Boston.was the Essex Gazette. 

For the influence of the clergj^, see Thornton's " Pulpit of the 
Revolution," and the " Patriot Preachers of the Revolution," 1860. 

As before, the lives of leading patriots must be consulted, — Wells's 
"Life of Samuel Adams;" the life and diaries of John Adams; 
Quincy's ' ' Life of Josiah Quincy ; " Austin's ' ' Life of Elbridge Gerry ; " 
and the general histories, like those of the United States by Bancroft 
and Hildreth ; and those of Massachusetts by Minot and Barry, etc. 

The third volume of Hutchinson's Massachusetts still gives the 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 153 

tory view, and the later British estimate of the period is found in 
Mahon's (Stanhope's) ' ' History of England." 

For the local associations of the Province House, Green Dragon 
Tavern, etc., see ShurtlefFs "Description of Boston," and Drake's 
^ " Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston." 

BOSTON" MASSACEE, 1770. 

Frothingham, in his articles in the Atlantic Monthly, June and 
August, 1862, and November, 1863, on the " Sam Adams Regi- 
ments," traces carefully the progress of events from October, 1768, 
which culminated in the massacre in March, 1770, and this matter is 
epitomized in ch. 6 of his "Life of Warren." Bancroft treats 
it in all its relations, in chapter 43 of his sixth volume ; and it is 
the subject of special treatment by Kidder in his " Boston Massacre," 
and in the introduction 'to Loring's "Hundred Boston Orators." 
Capt. Preston, the royal officer who commanded the soldiers, was 
defended at his trial by John Adams and Josiah Quincy, and the 
lives of these patriots treat of their defence. The accounts of the 
trial, and the collection of orations delivered on succeeding anniver- 
saries, are necessary to a full understanding of the event. 

See also Snow's "History of Boston," the lives of Otis, Samuel 
Adams, etc., and the general histories. 

Crispus Attucks, one of the slain, usually called a mulatto, is held 
to have been a half-breed Indian in the American Historical Record, 
Dec.,' 1872.^ 

THE TEA PARTY, DEC, 1773. 

Frothingham, in his "Life of "Warren," ch. 9, has given the 
+ details, and in his " Rise of the Republic," ch. 8, has shown its 
political significance, and has again taken a general survey in his 
Centennial paper, in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, Dec, 1873. See also the collections of this Society, 4th 
series, vol. in. In ch. 2 of Reed's "Life of Joseph Reed," and in 
Sparks's " Washington," the relations of the patriots of Boston to those 
of the other colonies at this time can be studied. Bancroft gives to 

it ch. 50 of his sixth volume ; and Barry, ch. 15 of his second vol- 

. 20 



154 APPENDIX. 

ume. II ewes, an actor in the scenes, has given an account in his 
" Traits of the Tea Part}"." There are illustrative documents in 
Force's "American Archives," vol. i. ; in Niles's "Principles and 
Acts of the Revolution ; " and the contemporary accounts and records 
have been reprinted from the Boston Gazette of Dec. 6, 1773, by 
Poole, in one of the State Registers. 

See further Tudor's " Life of Otis," ch. 21; Snow's "Boston;" 
Niles's Register, 1827, vol. xxxm., p. 75, from Flint's "Western 
Monthly Review for July, 1827 ; Lossing in Harper's Monthly, vol. iv. 

BOSTON PORT BILL, 1774. 

General Gage arrived in Boston in May, to put the provisions of 
this bill in force, June 12, Its political bearings can be traced in 
Bancroft, and in Frothingham's Warren, ch. 10? and in his " Rise of 
the Republic;" and the military sequel in Frothingham's "Siege 
of Boston." See also Tudor's Otis ; Wells's Samuel Adams ; " Life 
of John Adams ; " " Life of Josiah Quincy." 

Illustrative documents will be found in Force, vol. n. See the 
diary of Thomas Newell, in Boston, Nov., 1773, to Dec, 1774, in 
Proceedings of Massachusetts Historical Society, Feb., 1859, and in 
their Collections, 4th series, vol. i. The Correspondence of the 
Boston Donation Committee, relative to the supplies sent to the 
embargoed town from other places, is given in the Massachusetts 
Historical Society's Collections, 4th series, vol. iv. For correspon- 
dence of the Boston patriots with those of the other colonies, see 
Reed's " Life of Joseph Reed." * 

The Suffolk Resolves, passed at Milton, Sept. 9, 1774, can be 
found in' the appendix to Frothingham's Warren. 

1775, JANUARY — MARCH. 

For the interval before the actual hostilities at Concord, still follow 
Frothingham's "Siege of Boston," ch. 2, and consult for illustra- 
tive documents Force's "American Archives," vol. i., where will be 
found Berniere's narrative of his explorations towards Worcester, to 
get information for General Gage. For particulars of Leslie's expe- 
dition to Salem, in March, see Endicott's article in the Proceedings 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 155 

of the Essex Institute, vol. i. ; and the >' Life of Timothy Pickering," 
vol. i. Also, George B. Loring's. and other addresses at the Centen- 
nial Celebration, 1875. The contemporary evidence relative to the 
expedition to Marshfield can be found in Force's ; ' American Archives.' 3 
E. E. Hale's popular summary, " One Hundred Years Ago," 
begins with these preliminaries of war. 

«f 

1775, APRIL, LEXINGTON AND CONCORD. 

The best eclectic account is that in Frothingham's " Siege of Bos- 
ton." and in his appendix will be found a chronological list of the 
principal authorities. 

Paul Revere' s expedition on the night of the 18th, to give notice of 
the morrow's march, which is the subject of Longfellow's poem, was 
narrated by himself, and appears in the Collections of the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society, first series, vol. v. See. in this connection, 
on the escape of Hancock and Adams, Loring's "Hundred Boston 
Orators," and General Sumner in the New England Historical and 
Genealogical Register, vixr., p. 188. 

The narrative and depositions ordered by the Provincial Congress 
were printed in the " Journal of the Third Provincial Congress, 1775 ;" 
iu the London Chronicle, and in various Boston newspapers, and the 
whole reappeared in a pamphlet, issued by Isaiah Thomas, and en- 
titled " A Narrative of the Incursions and Ravages of the King's 
Troops on the Nineteenth of April." andisgivenin Force's -'American 
Archives." This matter constituted the account sent by the Con- 
gress to England, with the Essex Gazette, which was the chief news- 
paper narrative, and which reached London eleven days- ahead of 
General Gage's messenger, and, in this connection, seethe Proceedings 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, April, 1858. Other accounts 
and depositions, as well as those transmitted to the Continental Con- 
gress, can also be found in Force's "American Archives ; " in Froth- 
ingham's " Siege of Boston ; " in Shattuck's " History of Concord ; " in 
Dawson's "Battles of the United States ; " in Frank Moore's " Diary 
of the Revolution," etc. The Rev. Wm. Gordon. May 1-7. 1775, 
prepared "An Account of the Commencement of Hostilities." which 
is reprinted in Force, and this, with additions and abridgments. 
forms part of his ' • History of the Revolution." 



156 APPENDIX. 

The Rev. Jonas Clark delivered a discourse in Lexington on the 
first anniversary in 1776, and appended to it a narrative of events 
which has been reprinted in 1875 in large quarto. A brief account 
was also prepared hy the Rev. ¥m. Emerson, of Concord, a witness 
of the events at Concord, and this was printed in R. W. Emerson's 
centennial discourse in 1835. 

Of the British accounts, Col. Smith's report will be found in the*' 1 
Appendix to Mahon's (Stanhope's) England. Various English ac- 
counts are given in Force, and in "The Detail and Conduct of the 
American War." General Gage sent to Governor Trumbull a " Cir- 
cumstantial Account," which is printed in the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society's Collections, second series, vol. ii., while in vol. iv. will 
be found a reprint of a pamphlet originally printed in 1779, from a 
manuscript left in Boston by a British officer, which gives Gage's in- 
structions to Brown and De Berniere, Feb. 22, 1775, with an account 
of their journey to Worcester and Concord, and a narrative of the 
" Transactions" on the 19th of April. Stedman's " History of the 
American War," and the other British writers claim that the pro- 
vincials fired first at Lexington ; and Pitcairn's side of the story is 
given from Stiles's diary in Frothingham, and in Irving's "Wash- 
ington," etc. 

Late in the day General Heath exercised a general command over 
the provincials, and his Memoirs can be consulted. Col. Timothy 
Pickering's Essex Regiment was charged with dilatoriness in coming 
up, and this question is discussed in the "Life of Pickering," 
ch. 5 of vol. i. 

The semi-centennial period renewed the interest in the matter, and 
the question, whether the provincials returned the fire of the British 
troops at Lexington, was discussed with some spirit. This having 
been denied, a committee of the town of Lexington authorized Elias 
Phinney to publish an account of " The Battle of Lexington," to 
which were appended depositions (taken in 1822) of survivors to es- 
tablish the point. This led the Rev. Ezra Ripley and others, of Con- 
cord, in 1827, to publish " The Fight at Concord," claiming the credit 
of first returning the fire for Concord, and this was reissued in 1832. 
In 1835 the story was again told in the interest of Concord, in 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 157 

Lemuel Shattuck's " History of Concord," which was reviewed in the 
North American Review, vol. xxn. In this account, as well as that 
by Ripley and others, it was claimed that the part borne by Captain 
Davis, of Acton was not fairly represented, and Josiah Adams, 
in his centennial address at Acton, in 1835, and again in a letter to 
Shattuck in 1850, presented the merits of Davis, and gave deposi- 
tions of survivors. The parts borne by other towns have also been 
commemorated, for Danvers, by D. P. King, in 1835 ; for Cambridge, 
by Mackenzie, in 1870 ; and also see S. A. Smith's " West Cambridge 
on the 19th of April, 1775." 

At Lexington, Edward Everett delivered an address in 1835, but 
see also his Mount Vernon Papers, No. 47 ; and there is an account of 
the celebration in Niles's Register, vol. xlviii., and a plan of the Lex- 
ington field can be found in Josiah Adams's letter, and in Moore's 
" Ballad History of the Revolution," No. 1. See also Hudson's 
" History of Lexington," ch. 6, and a popular narrative in Harper's 
Monthly, vol. xx., and accounts in association with landmarks in Los- 
sing's "Field-book," and in Drake's " Historic Fields and Mansions of 
Middlesex." See also R. H. Dana's address in 1875, and the centennial 
" Souvenir of 1775." 

At Concord, Edward Everett delivered an address in 1825, and 
much of interest in connection with this anniversary was printed in 
the newspapers of that day, and Lossing and Drake should also be 
consulted for much illustrative of the events of 1775. Popular narra- 
tives can be found in Frederic Hudson's illustrated paper in Harper's 
Monthly, May, 1875, and in the article by G-. Reynolds in the Unitarian 
Review for April, 1875. See also G-eorge W. Curtis's oration in 
1875, and James R. Lowell's ode, in Atlantic Monthly, June, 1875. 
Also the Rev. Henry Westcott's Centennial Sermons, 1875. 

The events of the 19 th of April also form important chapters in Ban- 
croft's " United States ; " in Elliott's "New England ; " in Barry's "Mas- 
sachusetts," and in other general works on the revolutionary period. 
Also see Dawson's " Battles of the United States ; " E. E. Hale's " One 
Hundred Years Ago ;" and Potter's American Monthby, April, 1875. 

Amos Doolittle's contemporary engravings of the events are repro- 
duced in a new edition of Clark's narrative. See, also, Moore's 



158 



APPENDIX. 



" Ballad Histoiy," part 1 ; and Potter's American Monthly, April, 
1875. There is a view of Concord taken in 1776, in the Massachu- 
setts Magazine, July, 1794. 

An account of Jonathan Harrington, the last survivor of the fight, 
is given in Potter's American Monthly, July, 1875. See also Los- 
sing's "Field-book of the Revolution." 

Claims have been raised for other places as having been the first 
to shed blood in the war, for which see the Historical Magazine, Jan., 
1869, and Potter's American Monthly, April, 1875. 

The events of the interval between Concord and Bunker Hill can 
best be studied in Frothingham's "Siege of Boston." Particularly 
on the affair at Noddle's Island, May 27, 1775, see Force's "American 
Archives," Humphrey's " Life of Putnam," and a chapter in Dawson's 
" Battles of the United States." 

1775, JUNE 17, BUNKER HILL. 

Frothingham, in an appendix to his " Siege of Boston," enumerates 
in chronological order the chief authoritative statements regarding 
the battle. Dawson devoted the whole of the June, 1868, double 
number of the Historical Magazine to a collation of nearly all the 
printed accounts, authoritative and compiled, and from his foot-notes 
can be gleaned a full list of articles and books which at that time had 
been published. 

The affairs of the 19th of April had among other results precipitated 
the removal of the newspapers published in Boston to other places, 
and the number for April 24 was the last of the Evening Post pub- 
lished in Boston. Edes's Boston Gazette, which was thus removed 
to Watertown, the seat of the Provincial Congress, gave, in its issue 
for June 19, the earliest account of the battle which appeared in print. 
The Massachusetts Spy, which had been removed to Worcester in 
May, had its first account in its number for June 21. That same day 
the Connecticut Journal had its first intelligence, and though it was 
several days later before the New York papers published accounts, on 
this same 21st a handbill with the news was circulated in New York. 
In F. Moore's "Diary of the American Revolution," there will be 
found a list of the contemporary newspapers publishing these accounts, 



BATTLE OF BUNKEE HILL. 159 

and from which he derives in part the matter of his book, which begins 
Jan. 1, 1775. Many of these accounts will be found reprinted in 
Dawson's Historical Magazine article ; and some of them have been 
reproduced in facsimile in the centennial memorials of the present 
year. Frothingham reprints that of the Massachusetts Spy in his 
recent condensed narrative of the battle, and it is in facsimile in the 
" Centennial Graphic." Almon's Remembrancer, London, was begun 
June 15, 1775, for gathering from English and American sources the 
fugitive and contemporary accounts. 

The Rev. Mr. Thacher was a spectator of the action, from the 
north side of the Mystic river, and within a fortnight afterwards, and 
depending in some measure upon Prescott's assistance, prepared an 
account, the manuscript of which is now preserved in the American 
Antiquarian Society's collection at Worcester. This had' been used 
by Frothingham and others, but was never printed in full with all its 
corrections indicated, till Dawson included it in his appendix in 1868. 
This narrative of Thacher's was made the basis of that which the 
Committee of Safety prepared for transmission to England, and this 
latter narrative is given with much other matter in ' ' The Journal of 
the Third Provincial Congress, 1775," and has been reprinted by 
Ellis (in 1843), Frothingham, Swett, Dawson, etc. Force's "Ameri- 
can Archives," vol. iv., is another repository of these and various 
other contemporary accounts, several of which are copied by Dawson 
in his "Battles of the United States," as well as in his Historical 
Magazine article; and by F. Moore in his "Ballad History of the 
American Revolution," part 2. Colonel Prescott's own account is 
contained in a letter dated August 25, 1775, and addressed to John 
Adams, and this can be seen in Frothingham, where it was first pub- 
lished, and in Dawson. What is called the " Prescott ms.," which is 
said to have been prepared in the family of the colonel, and in part 
with his approval, was first printed in full in Butler's " History of 
Groton," p. 337, etc., and it has been reprinted by Dawson, p. 437. 
Frothingham and Sparks had the use of the manuscript known as 
Judge Prescott's (son of the colonel) memoir of the battle ; but it has 
never been printed in full. Contemporary feelings will be found 
expressed in Mrs. Adams's letters. 



160 APPENDIX. 

President Stiles, then of Newport, kept a diary of events at this 
time, which is preserved at Yale College. He first heard the news 
on the 18th, and began his account on that day, to which he added 
from day to day, as farther corrected tidings reached him. This was 
printed at length for the first time in Dawson, but has been used by 
Sparks, Frothingham, Bancroft, etc. This diary also copies the 
letter of Peter Brown, dated June 25, to his mother, which is con- 
sidered by Frothingham, who gives it, as the most noteworthy de- 
scription written by a private soldier engaged in the battle, and is 
printed from the original in Potter's American Monthly, July, 1875. 
Col. Scammons's account of his court martial is given in the New 
England Chronicle, Feb. 29, 1776, and is reprinted in Dawson, p. 
400. Governor Trumbull, in a letter, August 31, 1779, gave a sketch 
of the action, and it is printed in the Massachusetts Historical 
Society's Collections, vol. vi. Col. John Trumbull, who afterwards 
painted the well-known picture of the battle, was not in it, but saw 
the smoke of it from the Roxbu^ lines, and in his autobiography, 
published in 1841, has an outline narrative. General Heath's 
memoirs, published in 1798, have a brief account. The narrative in 
Thacher's militarj' journal is entered as having been written in Juby, 
1775. The memoirs of General James Wilkinson, printed in 1816 
give, in ch. 19, a "rapid sketch," enibocbying his own knowledge 
and other evidence which had reached him at first hand, as he went 
over the field in March, 1776, with Stark and Reed, and conferred 
with Major Caleb Stark. 

Other testimony of eye-witnesses was gathered too long after the 
battle to be wholly trustworthy, in 1818, at the time of the Dearborn 
controversy, later to be mentioned, and numerous depositions were 
taken from survivors attending the semi-centennial celebration, which 
are preserved in three large volumes, but are considered by those who 
have examined them as of little or no value. There is a long account 
in the Columbian Centiuel of December, 1824, and January, 1825. 
An account by Oliver Morsman, " a revolutionar}^ soldier," was pub- 
lished at Sacket's Harbor, in 1830. Mr. Needham Maynard contrib- 
uted the recollections of a survivor, which were printed in a Boston 
newspaper as late as 1843. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 161 

Of the British accounts, the entries in Howe's orderly book are 
given in Ellis's sketch, 1843 edition. The Gentleman's Magazine of 
the same year (London) gave an account, with a somewhat erroneous 
plan of the redoubt, which has been reproduced in Frothingham's 
monographs. General Gage's official report was printed in Almon's 
" Remembrancer," accompanied with strictures upon it, and it has been 
reprinted by Ellis (1843 ed. with the strictures) , Force, Swett, Froth- 
ingham ; by Dawson, in his Historical Magazine and in his " Battles ; " 
in Frank Moore's "Ballad History," etc. Burgoyne saw the action 
from Copp's Hill, and his letter to Lord Stanley, dated June 25, 1775, 
has also been given in Dawson ; in Ellis's ed. of 1843 ; in the New 
England Historical and Genealogical Register, April, 1857 ; in an 
appendix in Pulsifer's sketch of the battle, issued two or three years 
since, and is also given in S. A. Drake's " Bunker Hill; the story 
told in Letters from the Battlefield ;" in which also will be found, 
together with various other minor British accounts, the " Impartial 
and Authentic Narration," originally published at London, 1775, by 
John Clarke, " a first lieutenant of marines," who gives what purports 
to be a speech of Howe to his troops previous to the advance, which, 
with much else in this somewhat extended narrative, is considered ^ 
rather apocryphal. The compiled account in the Annual Register has 
been thought to have been written by Burke. Force, Ellis's ed. of 
1843, and Dawson, gather various of the contemporary royalist 
accounts, and some particulars can be found in the separate 
historic records detailing the careers of some of the royal regiments in 
the action, like the Fourth, Fifth, Tenth Foot, etc. Moorsom's Fifty- 
second regiment gives a brief account of its share in the battle, with 
plates of their uniform at the time. See also Sergeant Lamb's 
(Welsh Fusileers) " Journal of Occurrences daring the late American 
War ; " and the " Detail and Conduct of the American War," for a letter 
from Boston, July 5, 1775, and other British accounts. The British 
accounts first took regular shape in Stedman's V History of the American 
War," published in 1794. Howe's conduct of the battle is criticised in 
Lee's " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department." Mahon's 
(Stanhope) " History of England " represents in his account, otherwise 
fair, that the Americans then, and since, have considered the battle a 
21 



162 APPENDIX. 

victory ; but when called upon to substantiate such an assertion 
relied chiefly (see his appendix) on the reports of British tourists of 
a subsequent day. 

In 1858, Mr. Henry B. Dawson published a popular account of the 
" Battles of the United States," giving a chapter, based on the ordi- 
nary authorities, to Bunker Hill. In 1868, in the Historical Maga- 
zine, an American periodical, then edited by him, he gave a special 
study of the battle, in which the " colonists" of the earlier work 
became " insurgents," and the royal troops were represented as fight- 
ing " in support of the constitution, the laws, the king and the gov- 
ernment, and in defence of the life of the nation." Differing from 
other authorities, he represents that the attack along the beach of the 
Mj'stic was a preliminary attack. He has elaborately collated the 
various contemporary and later compiled accounts, and has appended 
numerous illustrative documents b}' English and American writers, 
derived from Almon, Force, Ellis, Frothingham, and others, to which 
he adds several printed for the first time. The fac-similes of Page's, 
De Berniere's and Dearborn's maps, which are mentioned in his text 
as given with his account, were never appended to it. 

Of the more extended descriptions, that in Frothingham's " Siege 
of Boston " is distinctively marked for its dependence chiefly upon 
contemporary accounts, and its avoidance of the mingled recollections 
and self-deceptions of the survivors of all grades, who, in 1818, fur- 
nished so many depositions, over forty years after the conflict, to 
perplex the truth-lover. These confused recollections, added to the 
local jealousies of the partisans of the troops of Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire and Connecticut, and to the facts narrated by different 
persons as having taken place in positions so disconnected as the 
redoubt and the rail-fence, have done much to render the sifting of 
evidence very necessary ; and it all gave some ground for Charles 
Hudson, in 1857, in his " Doubts concerning the Battle of Bunker 
Hill" [see also Christian Examiner, vol. xl.], to attempt a logical 
venture somewhat after the fashion of Whateley's famous argument on 
the non-existence of Napoleon. When, later, Frothingham wrote the 
" Life of Joseph Warren," he took occasion to summarize his longer 
narrative in a chapter of that book, and his whole description has again 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 163 

been recast in a popular form in his recent centennial ' ' Bunker Hill," 
■where he has added much new matter, in letters, incidents, etc. 

Anniversary addresses have often rehearsed the story, occasionally 
adding a few details to our stock of information, and the most signifi- 
cant among them have been Webster's, in 1825 [see also Analectic 
Magazine, vol. xi.], at the laying of the corner-stone of the Monu- 
ment ; Alexander H. Everett's, in 1836, which subsequently was in- 
woven in his life of "Warren, in Sparks's series ; the Eev. Dr. Geo. E. 
Ellis's, in 1841, which was subsequently issued in 1813, anonymously, 
as a sketch of the battle, with an appendix of illustrative documents, 
some of which were printed for the first time, and has again, in 1875 , 
been recast in a centennial histor}* without the illustrative documents ; 
but see also his account in the Xew York Herald, June 8, 1875 ; that 
by Edward Everett, and that by Judge Devens in 1875. A succinct 
narrative of the battle was also once or twice printed by Alden Brad- 
ford, in connection with his studies in the history of Massachusetts. 
A recent " Xew History of the Battle," by TV. TV. TVheildon, traces 
two separate engagements constituting the battle. The last two or 
three years have produced condensed summaries, like that of Pulsifer, 
and S. A. Drake's ; that by James M. Bugbee, in Osgood's Centennial 
Memorial ; an article by H. E. Scudder, in the Atlantic Monthly, 
July, 1875 ; one by Launce Poyntz, in the Galaxy, July, 1875. It also 
makes ch. 4 of E. E. Hale's "One Hundred Years Ago," and the 
story is retold in the Centennial numbers of Frank Leslie's Pictorial, 
in the " Centennial Graphic," and in various other popular memorials 
of 1875. The story is also told discursively in the illustrated paper, 
by Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood, in the July (1875) number of Harper's 
Monthly ; and with particular refererence to .landmarks, in Lossing's 
" Field-book of the Revolution," vol. i., which account also appeared 
in the first volume of Harper's Monthly ; in S. A. Drake's " Historic 
Fields and Mansions of Middlesex." Finch, in an article in Silliman's 
Journal, 1822, gave an account of the traces then existing of the 
works of the British and Americans in the siege of Boston, and this 
has been reprinted by Frothingham. 

The battle has necessarily given a subject to chapters in the gen- 
eral histories of the war and of the State. The earliest American 



164 APPENDIX. 

historian of the war was Gordon [see Loring on Gordon's History 
in Historical Magazine, February and March, 1862], and he followed 
clo sely the account of the Committee of Safety. Ramsay's ' ' American 
Revolution" was published in 1789; Mrs. Mercy Warren's, later; 
Hubley's, in 1805. Bancroft gives to it the 38th chapter of his seventh 
volume. It is described in ch. 20 of the second volume of Elliott's 
"New England," and in the third volume of Barry's "Massachu- 
setts." The biographers of Washington, like Marshall and Irving, 
needed to describe it as leading to the consolidation of the army of 
which he took command on the 3d of July next following. There is 
a brief account in Tudor's " Life of Otis." The memoirs of Heath 
have already been mentioned, and the lives of other observers and 
participants will give occasional minor details. 

For the part borne by New Hampshire troops, see the memoirs of 
Stark, and Edward Everett's " Life of Stark." Stark's report to the 
New Hampshire congress is in the New Hampshire Historical Society's 
Collections, vol. n. ; in Ellis's ed. of 1843, etc. The adjutant-general 
of New Hampshire, in his report for 1866, second volume, rehearses 
the military history of that State, and gives some details regarding 
the troops of that province which were engaged. The manuscripts in 
the adjutant-general's office (New Hampshire) , containing the rosters 
of Stark's and Reed's regiments, have never been printed in full. C. 
C. Coffin, in a letter in the Boston Globe, June 23, 1875, epitomizes 
the service of New Hampshire troops in the battle ; and details will 
be found in the New Hampshire Provincial Papers, vol. vn. ; in the 
histories of the towns of Hollis, whence came Capt. Dow's company 
of Prescott's regiment ; of Manchester, by Potter, whence came Capt. 
John Moore's company ^of Stark's regiment ; and of New Ipswich. 
See also the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 
xxvn., p. 377, etc. 

The question of the highest command in the battle has given rise to 
much controversy. In many of the unauthoritative contemporary 
accounts, particularly in the British ones, Warren is represented as 
the commander. Putnam is known to have been the adviser of the 
expedition in the Council of War, and in the less authoritative 
accounts of the time is represented, as also in engravings, as the 



BATTLE OE BUNKER HILL. 165 

responsible director. Gordon, in his history in 1788, was the 
earliest, in print, to give the command to Prescott, following the 
Committee of Safety's account. The earliest printed direct mention 
of Putnam as commander is in a note to the sermon preached at his 
funeral by Rev. Josiah Whitney, in 1790, where he took exception to 
Humphrey's statement in his " Life of Putnam," 1788, published while 
Putnam was still living, in which no mention is made of Putnam 
having commanded. Eliot, in his "Biographical Dictionary," in 1809, 
represents Prescott as commanding in the redoubt, and Stark at the 
rail-fence. The earliest reflection upon the conduct of Putnam in the 
action appeared in General Wilkinson's memoirs, which were pub- 
lished in 1816, and were reviewed in the North American, October, 
1817. The Analectic Magazine for February and March, 1818, had 
articles on the battle, following chiefly the accounts of Thacher and 
Gordon, but with some important differences, and giving documents 
in the latter number. 

General Henry Dearborn, who was a captain in Stark's regiment at 
the rail-fence, opened a controversy, not yet ended, and which at that 
time soon got to have a political bearing, when he printed his 
communication in the Portfolio for March, 1818, in which he aimed 
to show that during the battle Putnam remained inactive at the rear, 
and this paper has since been reprinted separately ; and twice in the 
Historical Magazine, August, 1864, and June, 1868, p. 402. 
Colonel Daniel Putnam, the son of the general, replied to Dearborn 
in the May number of the Portfolio, and appended numerous deposi- 
tions, all of which have been reprinted in Dawson, p. 407. 

This reply of Daniel Putnam led General Dearborn to vindicate his 
former statement by the publication in the Boston Patriot of June 
13, 1818, of various depositions and confirmations of other partici- 
pants, all of which may also be found in Dawson, p. 414. At this 
time, Daniel Webster, in the North American Review, July, 1818, 
vindicated the character of Putnam, but, examining the evidence 
judicially, came to the conclusion that Prescott commanded the 
fatigue party during the night, and on the subsequent clay exercised a 
general command over the field so far as he could, and should be 
considered the commanding officer, and as acting under the orders of 



166 APPENDIX. 

General "Ward, at Cambridge, only, and to whom he made report of 
the action after it was over. See also the Proceedings of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Societ} r for June, 1858. 

Judge John Lowell next reviewed Dearborn's defence of his 
attack on Putnam in the Columbian Centinel for July 4 and 15, 1818, 
and strengthened his points with counter-depositions of actors in the 
struggle, all of which is again given in Dawson, p. 423. Colonel 
Swett now entered into the controversy in an ' ' Historical and Topo- 
graphical Sketch of Bunker Hill Battle," which, in October, 1818, was 
appended to an edition of Humphrey's " Life of Putnam," and this 
sketch was subsequently published separately and with enlargements, 
derived in part from conversations with the survivors who attended 
the semi-centennial jubilee of 1825, and this appeared in 1826, and 
again in 1827 ; but see Sparks's notice in the North American Review, 
vol. xxii. Meanwhile, Col. Daniel Putnam, in 1825, recapitulated 
his views in a communication to the Bunker Hill Monument Associa- 
tion, and this document is printed in the Connecticut Historical Collec- 
tions, vol. i. The account of Swett has been substantially followed 
in Rand, Avery & Co.'s "Bunker Hill Centennial." Swett's first 
publication was criticised by D. L. Child, in the Boston Patriot, 
November 17, 1818, who claimed that Putnam was not in the battle, 
and whose article was reprinted as an ' ' Enquiry into the Conduct of 
General Putnam." On the other hand, Alden Bradford, in his 
pamphlet, in 1825, claimed the command for Putnam. In 1841, 
Ellis, in his oration, and subsequently in his " History of the Battle," 
in 1843, taking advantage of intercourse with Prescott's descendants, 
made the first extended presentation of Prescott's claims, to which 
Col. Swett demurred in the Boston Advertiser, where also can 
be found Ellis's rejoinder. Again, in 1843, John Fellows, in his 
" Veil Removed," animadverted upon Swett's views regarding Put- 
nam, and reproduced Dearborn's statements and many others aimed 
to detract from Putnam's fame. 

When Frothingham's "Siege of Boston" appeared in 1849, in 
which the question of the command was critically examined, p. 159, 
etc. , giving that power to Prescott, Swett renewed the controversy in 
a critique on that work in 1850, with a tract, "Who was the 



BATTLE OF BLTSTKEE HILL. 167 

Commander," etc., to which Frothingham replied in a pamphlet of 
fifty-sis pages, " The Command in the Battle of Bunker Hill," 
substantiating his position, and pointing out the inconsistencies 
and. seeming perversions of Swett. In 1853, Irving, in his " Life of 
Washington," favored Prescott. In 1855, L. Grosvenor, in an 
address before the descendants of General Putnam, "exposed" (as 
he claimed) " the ungenerous conduct of Colonel Prescott toward 
General Putnam, the commander in the battle." When Bancroft, in 
1858, published his seventh volume, he took the ground, already 
foreshadowed in a lecture which he had delivered, that Prescott 
commanded the provincials. In 1859, " Selah," of the Hartford 
Post, favoring Putnam, had a controversy with Dawson, who held 
Putnam to have been a " blusterer and swaggerer," and intimates he 
was also treacherous ; and this was reprinted in an unpublished 
quarto, " Major General Israel Putnam." Again, in Putnam's favor, 
the Hon. H. C. Deming delivered a discourse before the Connecticut 
Historical Society on the presentation of Putnam's sword, and it was 
repeated, June 18, 1860, at Putnam's grave, at Pomfret, before the 
Putnam Phalanx. The argument, as regards the claims of Putnam, 
was presented by the Rev. I. N. Tarbox, in the New York Herald, 
June 12 and 14, 1875, and in the New Englander, April, 1875. S. 
A. Drake's " General Israel Putnam, the Commander at Bunker 
Hill," argues on the basis of military rule, and summarizes the 
authorities. See also Hollister's " History of Connecticut," and 
Hinman's " Connecticut in the Revolution." Judge Devens's oration 
at Bunker Hill, 1875, favors Prescott. Wheiklon's " New History" 
favors Putnam. A pamphlet, " Col. William Prescott," by Francis 
J. Parker, issued since the centennial celebration, presents the case 
anew in favor of that officer. 

In 1825, when General W. H. Sumner was adjutant-general of 
Massachusetts, and it devolved upon him to arrange for the appear- 
ance of the veterans in the celebration of that year, he collected 
from the recitals of some of them some particulars regarding the 
appearance and death of Warren, and held some correspondence 
with Dr. Waterhouse on the subject in the Boston Patriot, in August 
of that year. This matter he reproduced in a paper in the New Eng- 



168 APPENDIX. 

land Historical and Genealogical Register, April and July, 1858. See 
further the accounts in Loring's " Hundred Boston Orators ; " in Mrs. 
J. B. Brown's [Warren's grand-daughter] "Stories of General 
Warren ; " in Dr. John Jeffries' [son of the royal surgeon on the 
field] paper in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 17, 
1875 ; and in the life of Dr. John Warren, brother of the general. 
See also the eulogy on General Warren in 1776 by Perez Morton, 
and the memorial volume issued on the occasion of the dedication of 
the Warren statue, and particularly Frothingham's " Life of Warren." 
There is an account of the different celebrations in Charlestown in 
the New York Herald for June 4, 1875. 

There are other papers on the battle in the New England Historical 
and Genealogical Register, and Dawson's and Frothingham's notes 
will indicate additional publications not mentioned here. 

The earliest of the plans of the action seems to have been a slight 
sketch, after information from Chaplain John Martin, who was in the 
battle, drawn by Stiles in his diary, which is reproduced in Dawson, 
who also, as does Frothingham, gives the slight sketch, made with 
printers' rules, which accompanied the account in Rivington's Gazette, 
August 3, 1775. 

The careful plan made by Page of the British engineers, based 
upon Capt. Montresor's survey (which closely agrees with Felton and 
Parker's survey of Charlestown in 1848) , is much the best, and it 
shows the laying out of Charlestown, the position of the frigates, and 
the battery at Copp's Hill. The successive positions of the attacking 
force are indicated by a superposed sheet. This was issued in 
London in 1776, and the same plate, with few changes, was used in 
Stedman's history in 1794. The original impression was re-engraved 
for Frothingham's " Siege," and is also given in his centennial 
narrative. 

The plan by De Berniere of the Tenth Royal Infantry, on much the 
same scale as Page's, differs in some points from it, is not so correct 
in the ground plan, and is the first plan that appeared in an American 
engraving, in the Analectic Magazine, February, 1818, where it is 
represented as from a sketch found in the captured baggage of a 
British officer, in 1775. General Dearborn made some remarks on 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 169 

this plan in the Portfolio, March, 1818, which are reprinted in Daw- 
son, p. 438. Dearborn's subsequent plan, as altered in red on that 
of De Berniere, was criticised upon the field in June, 1818, by Gov- 
ernor Brooks (who acted as messenger from Prescott to "Ward in the 
battle) , as detailed by General Sumner in the New England Historical 
and Genealogical Eegister, July, 1858. This map was made the 
basis of one engraved by Smith, and issued in Boston, at the time of 
the completion of the Monument, in 1843. 

A map of Boston, showing Charlestown and the field, with Bur- 
goyne's letter attached, was issued in London, and has been repro- 
duced in fac-simile in F. Moore's " Ballad History of the Revolution," 
part 2. 

There is also an English map of the eastern part of Massachusetts, 
dated London, September 2d, 1775, in which the lines of march of 
the troops of the different provinces are designated as they assembled 
to the relief of Boston. This has been reproduced in smaller size in 
the " Centennial Graphic," and Frothingham styles it " more curious 
than valuable." In a side-sketch, of this same sheet, there is a semi- 
pictorial plan of the battle, with the whole of Boston, and this has 
recently been fac-similed in Wheildon's, Pulsifer's and Bugbee's 
sketches, and in George A. Coolidge's " Centennial Memorial." 

Colonel Swett made a plan of his own, based on Berniere's, of about 
the size of Page's, and it was reproduced full size in Ellis's Oration, 
1841 ; but the reproductions of it in Lossing's " Field-book," in Ellis's 
New York Herald article, June 8, 1875, and in his History and Cen- 
tennial History, in Rand, Avery & Co.'s "Bunker Hill Centennial," 
in George A. Coolidge's " Brochure," in the Bunker Hill Times, June 
17, 1875, and in Bugbee's sketch, are reduced in size. Little regard 
is paid in this plan to the laying out of the town of Charlestown. See 
also the plan in the English translation of Botta's "History of the 
War of Independence." 

Of contemporary plans of Boston, that in the Gentleman's Maga- 
zine, October, 1775, p. 464, shows the peninsula, with " Charlestown 
in ruins." This is drawn from the same original as that in the 
Pennsylvania Magazine, 1775, which in the June number has a plan 
of Boston Harbor, with only one eminence delineated on the Charles- 



170 APPENDIX. 

town peninsula, which is marked "Bunk 8 H." The houses in the 
town are represented as on fire. The London Magazine, April, 1774, 
has a chart of the coast of New England, with a plan of Boston in the 
corner, and this plan was inserted, enlarged, in Jeffery's " Map of 
New England," Nov., 1774, with also a plan of Boston harbor, and 
was again copied in Jeffery's " American Atlas," 1776, and a French 
reproduction of it was published at Paris, in 1778, in the "Atlas 
Ameriquain Septentrional." 

There are rude contemporary views of the action, one of which ap- 
peared in 1775, known as Roman's, represents Putnam on horseback, 
as in command, and was reduced in the Pennsylvania Magazine, Sep- 
tember, 1775, and this has been heliotyped in Frothingham's centennial 
sketch, in Rand, Avery & Co.'s, and in Coolidge's " Memorials," and is 
also reproduced in Moore's " Ballad History," and in the Bunker Hill 
Times, June 17, 1875. In Cooking's poem, " The American War," 
published in London, 1781, is a somewhat extraordinary picture, 
which, with extracts from the poem, has been reproduced in S. A. 
Drake's monograph, and the picture is also given in Bugbee's sketch, 
and in Coolidge's "Brochure." In the Gentleman's Magazine, Feb., 
1790, there is a view of Charlestown and Howe's encampment on the 
hill, taken after the battle, and in the Massachusetts Magazine, Sept., 
1789, is a view of Charles-river Bridge, showing the configuration of 
Bunker's and Breed's Hills. 

The well-known picture which Colonel Trumbull, in 1786, painted 
of the battle, and of which a key will be found in the New England 
Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xv., and of which there 
is a description in Trumbull's autobiography, gave the command in 
the redoubt to Putnam, and a subordinate position to Prescott, which 
the painter is said afterwards to have regretted, as indicating views on 
the question of command at variance with the truth. A picture by 
D. M. Carter represents Prescott in command, and this is reproduced 
in Coolidge's " Brochure." For accounts of the Monument, see 
Ellis's edition of 1843; Frothingham's "Siege of Boston;" and 
Wheildon's " Life of Solomon Willard." 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 171 

THE SIEGE OF BOSTON, JUNE, 1775— MARCH, 1776. 

The siege of Boston began with the return of the British troops 
from Concord on the evening of April 19, 1775, and Putnam fortified 
Prospect Hill immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill ; and after 
Washington's taking the command, July 3, 1775, the completion of 
the lines about the town was begun. 

The fullest account of the events succeeding the 17th of June will 
be found in Frothingham's " Siege of Boston," but a general survey 
of the events will be found in Bancroft and Barry ; and popular ac- 
counts can be followed in Dawson's " Battles of the United States ; " 
in E. E. Hale's " One Hundred Years Ago," and in the general histo- 
ries. Gordon gives details from diaries of the times ; and illustrative 
matter of contemporary origin is given in Almon's " Remembrancer ; " 
in Force's " American Archives ; " in Moore's "Diary of the American 
Revolution." See also the Collections of the Essex Institute, vol. 
in. ; the diary of General Heath in the camps at Roxbury and Cam- 
bridge, in the Proceedings, May, 1859, of the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society. 

The letters of Washington, in Sparks's edition, during his stay at 
Cambridge, are of the utmost importance, as are those of Joseph 
Reed, his military secretary. See also the autobiography of Col. 
John Trumbull, who was at this time of Washington's military 
family, and the life of Dr. John Warren (brother of General Joseph 
Warren) , of the medical staff. 

Of the associations of Washington with his head-quarters at Cam- 
bridge, see Alexander McKenzie's article in the Atlantic Monthly, 
July, 1875; and Charles Deane's paper in the Proceedings " of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, Sept., 1872; see also June, 1858. 
In this connection see Rev. Dr. Peabody's oration at Cambridge, July 
3, 1875, and the poem " Under the Great Elm," by James Russell 
Lowell, in the Atlantic Monthly, Aug., 1875. Also much connected 
with the Cambridge centre, and the left wing, can be learned from 
Drake's " Middlesex ; " and for the whole line, in Lossing's " Field- 
book." 

Various diaries and letters of contemporaries, written during this 
interval, have been printed, like that of Dr. Belknap, in the Cam- 



172 APPENDIX. 

bridge Camp, Oct., 1775, etc., in Proceedings, June, 1858, of the 
Massachusetts Historical Societ} 1- ; that of Paul Lunt, in the Cam- 
bridge Camp, May 10 to Dec. 23, 1775, in the same, Feb., 1872 ; that 
of Ezekiel Price, in the same, Nov., 1863 ; the Andrews papers in the 
same Proceedings, July, 1865 ; the diary of Aaron Wright, in the 
Boston Transcript, April 11, 1862 ; a diary in the Historical Maga- 
zine, Oct., 1864; letters, which had been used by Frothingham, but 
were not printed in full till thej" appeared in the New England His- 
torical and Genealogical Register, April, 1857 ; and letters in the 
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, June, 1873 ; in 
the American Historical Record, Dec, 1872. 

On the evacuation in March, 1776, there are letters in the New 
England Historical and Genealogical Register, vni., p. 231, etc. ; 
in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1858. 
Dawson, in his "Battles," gives Howe's despatch from Nantasket 
Roads, March 21, 1776 ; and Washington's despatch of March 19, 1776. 
The appearance of Boston at this time can be judged of from a 
plate representing the landing of the British troops to garrison the 
place in 1768, by Paul Revere, which is reproduced in Rand, Avery 
& Co.'s " Bunker Hill Centennial." There is a view of the harbor 
and town in the Pennsylvania Magazine, June, 1773 ; a description 
with a view in the Columbian Magazine, Dec, 1787 ; and one of the 
town from Breed's Hill in the Massachusetts Magazine, June, 1791 ; 
and in July, 1793, a large view of the Old State House, and for 
another see Aug., 1791 ; in July, 1789, one of the Hancock House ; 
in March, 1789, one of Faneuil Hall, — all showing the aspects 
of revolutionary Boston. A view showing Dorchester Heights is in 
the number for Nov., 1790 ; and another of Boston from those heights, 
in 1774, is copied from a contemporary English print in Lossing's 
"Field-book," i., p. 512. 

Descriptions of the town and its society at a little later date will 
be found in the letters of Anbure3 r , who was one of Burgoyne's offi- 
cers, quartered at Cambridge in 1777 ; in Abbe Robin, a chaplain of 
Rochambeau, in 1781, whose account is quoted by Shurtleff, and trans- 
lated in the Historical Magazine, Aug., 1862; and in Chastellux, 
1782, also quoted in ShurtlefFs "Description of Boston." 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 173 

There is a view of G-age's lines on Boston Neck in Frothingham, 
from a print published in 1777, and apian of them in Force's " Ameri- 
can Archives," and an original plan reproduced in the " Centennial 
Graphic." See also Pennsylvania Magazine, Aug., 1775, for Gage's 
lines. A plan of the fort erected by the British on Bunker Hill 
proper is given in Frothingham's " Siege," from one published in 
London, in 1781. 

Shurtleff, in his " Description of Boston," ch. 6, gives a chapter to 
the enumeration of maps of the town and its harbor, some of which 
are of interest in understanding the circuit of fortifications erected 
.by the provincial forces at this time. The best for consultation is the 
eclectic map given by Frothingham, p. 91. See also that in Force, vol. 
in., and the military maps in Marshall's " Washington," Sparks's 
"Washington," reproduced by Guizot, Lossing's "Field-book," etc. 

For contemporary maps, that in vol. i. of Almon's " Remembran- 
cer," drawn at Boston in June, 1775, shows for the field of battle, the 
words "Breed's Pasture," which accords with the belief that that 
eminence was not known as Breed's Hill, till after the battle. It is 
not otherwise very accurate. 

The Gentleman's Magazine, Jan., 1775, gave a chart of the town 
and harbor. 

The Pennsylvania Magazine, July, 1775, gave a plan of Boston, 
with a side-sketch of the lines about the town, which has been repro- 
duced in Moore's " Ballad History," and in the Centennial Memorials 
of Rand, Avery & Co., of George A. Coolidge, etc. Col. Trumbull, 
in his autobiography, gave a map of the lines" made by himself 
in Sept., 1775. 

A large map of the town, with surrounding country and harbor, 
after Samuel Holland's surveys, was published hy Des Barres in 
London, Aug. 5, 1775. It shows no fortifications except those at 
Copp's Hill and on the Neck. A colored copy of this is in the Boston 
Public Library, as is also a French map, 1780: "Carte particuliere 
clu Havre de Boston, reduite de la carte anglaise de Des Barres." 
The 1775 plate of Des Barres, without change of date, but neverthe- 
less with changes in some parts, and with the various fortifications 
of the siege delineated, was published again in 1780-83, in the " Amer- 



174 APPENDIX. 

ican Neptune," and it was from the Hon. Richard Frothingham's copy 
of this that the reproduction in Shurtleff's "Description of Boston" 
was made in 1870. 

Faden's map of Boston, with the intrenchment of 1775, based on 
the observations of Page in 1775, was published, London, Oct. 1, 
1777, and in a later edition, Oct., 1778, and it has been fac-similed 
in Frothingham's " Siege." 

Roman's map of " The Seat of Civil War in America," 1775, has a 
rude view of the lines on Boston Neck, and a plan of Boston and its 
environs. 

In 1776 there was published by Beaurain, at Paris, a " Carte du 
Port et Havre de Boston," which is copied from a British plan, and 
has in a vignette the earliest known printed representation of the 
Pine-tree banner. (This vignette is copied by Frothingham, who 
calls the map " curious but not correct.") There is also a German 
edition of the same. 

In 1777 was published Henry Pelham's map of Boston and envi- 
rons, which is called " the most accurate" of all. It was published 
in London, June 2, 1777, shows the military lines, and has been re- 
produced in Moore's " Diary of the Revolution," and in Drake's 
" Landmarks." 

In 1777, Faden published in London a plan of Boston and vicinity, 
showing the " rebel works," and based on Page's and Montresor's 
observations. 

The earliest of the eclectic maps, and the one followed by later 
authorities in assigning the location of the military lines, was that 
given by Gordon in his history, who took Page's for the town, and 
Pelham's for the country. 




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